


Raegan

by krispielee



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Child Abandonment, Child Neglect, For the most part, Gen, Growing Up, I'm Bad At Tagging, Kinda?, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, POV Child, POV Third Person Limited, she really just kinda grows up alone, until she meets Hiccup and Co
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2020-03-06 10:38:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 39
Words: 73,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18849361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/krispielee/pseuds/krispielee
Summary: Third grader Raegan gets lost on her way home from school and accidentally lands in the care of an elderly Hotburple. She spends her time discovering different species of dragons while waiting to finally be found.





	1. So it's cold now, that's new

Raegan was devastated.

She didn't know where she took the wrong turn. She shifted around in her place while her heartbeat picked up. It was suddenly freezing now, not at all like the late summer of Georgia she felt that morning. All she knew was that she had just stepped off of her bus and then. . .

Well, she was in the woods now.  _Freezing_  woods.

She was normally excited when she could see her breath in the cold air in front of her as mist, but that was when she had friends and her mom to experience it with her. She was alone.

Her mom was going to be so mad at her for getting lost like this! Raegan could feel her face heat and her lips tugged in an uncontrollable and quivering frown. It felt even worse when her tears fell because it made the chilly air amplify.

She wrapped her arms around to rub each other and hold across her chest. She really didn't like the way the air felt through her school uniform. She hadn't brought a jacket to school with her so all she had on was her white polo shirt and the maroon-plaid skirt that reached down to her knees.

She stood in the same place for several minutes, looking around in a circle as she tried to peer through the trees to find a glimpse of her home. Or neighborhood. Only after doing that, she lost track of which direction she came from. She was as lost as lost can be.

She was cold, hungry, terrified. She wanted her mom. Her mom would be safe and warm and nice. She needed her mom.

But she didn't want to move. She didn't want to go look for her mom because she always said if she ever got lost to just stay in one place and that her mom would find  _her_. She had been told to not to talk to strangers, not that there were any strangers around right now, and to stay right beside her big brother Jeremy on the walk home from the bus stop.

She had tried to do that, but now she was in the middle of the forest and, was it getting darker?

She let out a cry, looking around her little circle again, and shook on her toes. Her little feet trampled the ground, getting her perfectly clean black shoes all muddy and getting her legs even colder and  _wet_. She was almost throwing a tantrum with herself. She wanted to go home. She wanted to see her mom.

She didn't like this; she didn't mean to get lost.

She was doing everything right!

Raegan didn't know how long she stood there. Her mind just rolled over the thoughts in her head again and again, and eventually she let her arms fall down to her side. When she finally snapped out of her troubling thoughts and looked around again, it was almost pitch black, and she felt numb all over. Waiting wasn't working. Why hadn't her mother found her? She had stopped feeling the icy tears on her red cheeks and her stomach was making constant sounds at her to feed it.

She walked forward, though the forest in the direction that seemed most passable, fewer brambles in the way, no spiderwebs in sight. The trees above her showed a dark gray-blue sky and her eyes were getting heavier. Her feet were tired from constantly standing, and her chest was feeling shaky and cold from being alone so long. She wanted her mom, but it was dark and scary in the woods. She couldn't call out.

She might have walked for a few minutes or an hour or two, but she came across a little stream and had to stop. She looked up both ends, but it was too wide for her to step across and the frost at the edges of the pool made her rethink wading through it.

She moved up the stream where it was coming from, tripping here and there and accidentally slipped off the side and ended up calf-deep in the icy water. All the hair on her body stood on end and she immediately cried out. In her haste to pull out her leg from the water, she lost her balance and fell backwards (thankfully not in the stream).

Her whole uniform and new Tinkerbell backpack were covered in mud, freezing, tired, and now crying again.

She didn't spare a thought as she started howling in her misery. This was the worst day of her life; she wanted her mom!

She would years later look back on it as casual as can be and point out all the reasons things happened the way they did. After she ended up in the archipelago (somehow (she never got as far as to figure that one out)), she cried and shouting in the woods and catching the attention of every predator and critter that lived there. It was a wonder they hadn't come to inspect her sooner. Maybe they didn't care, or were preoccupied, or maybe they didn't see her as a threat worth investigating. Or prey worth eating.

Then she shambled through the brambles, making all the noise possible with her nonexistent experience in nature like that, and showed up at the one place every creature had to cross paths at one point or another. A source of fresh water.

So when she heard the rumble behind her, her heart froze in her chest and dropped to her belly. Her head lowered down over her shoulders and she shrunk to make herself smaller while her howls and hurt cries dimmed to stuffed-but-trying-to-be-silent sniffles and scared breaths.

She wasn't sure she'd heard it or not, so she held her breath for eight seconds, listening directly behind her.

Then she heard the plants rub across something as it pushed its way through and stomped about behind her. It had to be  _huge_! Crunching the earth beneath powerful, lumbering feet.

She couldn't help it when she spun around to look at the beast in the near pitch black darkness of the night forest. She could hear a great rumbling sound and just make out the jaws of something much, much bigger than herself.

She screamed and jerked back, falling right into the stream of ice, where she screamed even more. Her loose Tinkerbell backpack slipped off in her haste to get out of the stream on the other side so she could run, but was surprised when she was pulled from the stream by something else.

The monster.

In its mouth.

The saliva of its mouth was burning next to her icy skin. It made her bare legs prickle and shake as they stuck out of one corner of its mouth and her head and arms hung from the other. It was like all of her needed appendages conveniently slipped between its humongous teeth as it held her entire body in its rounded jaw.

Raegan shuffled around in its mouth, trying to roll over so she wasn't on her belly, before trying to kick her legs out so she could push her way from the monster's mouth before it started chewing. She was crying even more now, screaming so much that her voice hurt, and banging her arms around in the beast's mouth. She cut them on its teeth a few times.

The beast didn't seem deterred at all. It shook its head around a second, like it was getting a bug off, and waded through the icy stream without a care in the world. As it walked around, it bumped into stuff occasionally, like it had nearly as bad vision in the dark as she did. Not that Raegan could tell this. She was doing her best to curl up once she realized escape was futile.

The walk wasn't very far at all, really. The monster stopped at the mouth of a cave to plop down on its round bottom, then scratched its ear like a dog. In doing so, it held Raegan almost completely upside down, but it didn't seem to mind.

Then it waddled its way into the freezing cave and spat Raegan onto the cave floor. She cut her knees as she landed, but scrambled up and pressed herself against the nearest wall as she tried to get away. Her breathing was quick and shallow as she drew her knees in and watched the outline of the car-sized monster that had abducted her.

She could feel it move more than see it. The sky outside was near black now and the temperature was dropping lower and lower while she panicked. Her eyes were no good, so she relied on feeling the vibrations as it clumped around the room in a heavy and slumped mess. She could hear its breathing now, and she hadn't noticed all the background noise of chirping animals and wind moving trees and plants until she was sheltered from it in the cave.

It left her alone for a few minutes, but was still between her and the mouth of the cave.

She should have listened to her mother! If she had stayed put, none of this would have happened! She might even have been found by now!

She was crying again as much as she could after running out of tears from the whole exhausting day; but almost as soon as she started, the big beast trampled over to her and plopped down right beside her, so it was almost laying on her.

Though, if it really put weight on her, she would be dead almost instantly.

So the oven-like, rough skinned, bigger-than-a-car monster snuggled its face and jaws right by her legs and torso and just about pinned her to the wall. She tried her best to not touch it any more than necessary, but it was so  _warm_. Her clothes were still dripping wet from her spill in the stream and then the heated saliva of the abductor. Her arms were shivering and her neck was cold, and she knew that all she had to do was press back and she would be warm.

The thing had about fallen asleep as soon as it hit laid its head down. It didn't seem to plan to eat her right then. . .

And she was sleepy.

Raegan didn't find it in her to fight her eyelids to stay open. She couldn't, not when she was so emotionally exhausted by it all. Her eyelids dripped, and she listened to the monster's breathing. It was black all around her now. It's not like she could see anything anyway. . .


	2. Lava-vomiting rock puppies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raegan wakes up and explores a bit

She woke up almost sweating. Or was it leftover water from the stream?

It was ridiculously uncomfortable, but she wasn't exactly  _cold_.

The wetness of her clothing had changed to a more dampness overnight, and she felt a crick in her neck from sleeping wrong. Her stomach screamed at her, and she couldn't believe it. She had gone without dinner last night!

All the while, she had woken up  _on top_  of the beast now. It looked like the monster had snuggled her while it slept, holding her against its belly before it rolled onto its back. She could sit up on it, her legs hanging down, and not even be close to touching the floor. She discretely rubbed the mud on her arms onto the monster so she could be at least a little clean.

Her formerly white shirt was another deal entirely.

She peered down at the sandy-brown rough skin of the beast, toward its face. It was round just about everywhere. Its paws has dark brown claws caked in mud and fat, round legs. Its round belly rose and fell half a foot every time it breathed, and it  _snored_. Raegan didn't know how she slept through it all night!

The farther down the neck she looked, toward its face, the more curious she got. It didn't look like the monster she had seen last night. But then again, she hadn't really  _seen_  it last night, just an outline of a large, evil  _thing_.

She felt a little more comfortable with the beast when she rubbed its belly and felt the heat radiating off of it. That must have been why she slept like a rock. This thing kept the cold from bothering her. This thing and its kicking hind leg and tongue that flopped from its mouth happily.

Then her stomach gave her another shot of pain in her torso, and she peered down the side to look for a place to slide down. It had round little nubs all around it she might could use as a footstool. It looked awfully far down from its belly to the ground.

So slowly,  _ever_  so slowly, she inched and eased her way down the other side of the beast facing the mouth of the cave.

The sunlight was pouring in through it and made a nice glow all around the little shelter she had taken last night.

Raegan shifted about on her way down, trying to find what she thought would be good footholds but just resulted in blindly kicking the beast in the side a few times. It didn't seem to mind. Or notice.

It snored on.

Eventually, Raegan risked looking down to see how far she was. Her arms were getting tired now and her grip wasn't that strong. She couldn't really see in relative to her foot how far she was, so she risked closing her eyes and letting go.

She fell on her bottom with an  _oopf_.

Then she looked up the mountain in front of her and felt proud of herself. Jeremy wouldn't be able to call her a whiny baby after she did all this, after being lost in the woods and sleeping  _outside_  by  _herself_.

Well, not by herself. She glanced at the snoring beastie and then back to the mouth of the cave.

It looked like a girl, whatever it was. Raegan's mother had bulldogs: four of them. So she knew which ones were boys and which were girls. As far as she could tell, this huge bear-thing was a lady.

Raegan didn't know what it was. She'd never heard of anything like it before; but then, she hadn't known she lived so close to a forest either. It could be a weird bear thing, maybe a hippo? The beast didn't have fur; it was more like rough (rock-like) skin. Maybe scales? It had little bumps all over its body, many of them bigger than her hand.

Then her tail which looked a lot like a bee's.

Like one rounded rock covered in pimples with a smaller rock attached to it. Weird.

Finally, her attention was drawn to something below her. At first it confused her, then she thought it was a rug, and then she followed it with her eyes and noticed that the huge rhino thing had  _wings_!

It could  _fly_?

She pet them with her hand too. The rough leathery feeling to them amazed her. It was much less scary when it was daytime and it was asleep. Maybe it was the hunger talking, she would think back years later. It may not have been that long, but Raegan had  _never_  missed a meal before that day.

So she pushed herself up with her hands, then wiped them on her shuffled skirt.

Ugh, she hated wearing uniforms when they were  _clean_ , much less sleep with them all muddy.

She glanced back at the monster, not even considering waking it up, but she didn't want to wait before she went to try to find her way home. She was already getting bored and couldn't go without breakfast very much longer. Or she could, technically, but she  _really_  didn't want to.

So she slowly edged toward the exit, glancing back at the lady-snorezor, thinking of how much it reminded her of a Snorlax now.

She would take a Snorlax over this any day.

She checked both sides of the mouth of the cave before peeking out, like when her mother taught her to look both ways before crossing the street. All she could see was a relatively simple plain of dirt and rocks and the tree line starting over to her left. She looked both ways a few times, then walked out cautiously. Maybe she could find her way back to the stream?

She didn't make it too far.

She crossed down the open plain full of rocks, contemplating the color that really reminded her of the bee-beast. If it really tried to, it could camouflage in the rocks and dirt easily.

Raegan was extremely pleased with herself for noticing.

That feeling almost immediately turned to fear and nervousness with a hint of embarrassment as she moved her way past the cave and father into the rocks only to stumble upon a group of moving boulders.

She stopped in her place, flinching and jerking back in her fear when she saw the first one move. It was a bright purple, a miracle really that she hadn't noticed. It was flanked by a green one and two brownish ones.

Each of them peered up at her, exposing much larger teeth than the bee-beast had, like fangs but on their lower jaw. They were huge, but more resembling two big motorcycles than a car like the bee-beast. These looked similar to it, but might just be younger and smaller. Or kinda like dogs and wolves? Or cats and tigers?

She wonders which are the cats and which are the tigers in this instance.

The four moving rocks looked angrier than her abductor had, but her only clear view of the former was when it was sleeping. The purple one which was closest to her waddled forward awkwardly that reminded her of a duck or something. It had its wings folded up on its back and its yellow eyes trained on her. She curled in on herself, unable to move, and watched as it walked towards her in slow motion.

It reached her in no time, its three friends on its tail, and looked down at her. It might be twice her height, but seemed bigger as it glared down on her.

She avoided its bright yellow eyes and its pupil's slits.

She looked off to the side, head turned away, and arms curled close to her body. What seemed like an hour later, she heard some of the beasts walk off, but the purple one just looked at her.

It made a face when she made eye-contact, so she looked away.

Then she felt her hair ruffle from what felt like the air from a hairdryer.

Its breath was even warmer than the skin of the bee-dragon. It huffed at her. She curled her head up more. It huffed again.

It really confused her.

She slowly lifted her head, keeping her eyes properly away from its, and huffed at it through her nose. She saw the purple beast pat the ground with its clawed feet, and then it blew air into her face dead on. It smelled like smoke and mud. Gross. She kept her eyes closed as it did so before blowing back.

This interaction lasted about ten minutes with the two making noises at each other before Raegan got up the courage to try to touch its nose. It was a cute nose; she had to admit. It reminded her of a rhino's horn, but without the horn. Just a little bump. The rock-beast had been rather nice to her, making no move to munch her down. The other three had even moved back to whatever it was they were doing.

But it seemed like a touch on its nose was a little much because then its pupils turned thin again and it growled at her.

Raegan is not ashamed that she fell back in fear, on her butt, with her arms over her face.

She could hear it walk off. Or stomp. Maybe they're just heavy and don't know how to walk without stomping.

Two minutes later she was again cold without its breath, and sitting criss-cross-applesauce in the dirt. Very unladylike in a skirt, but no one was here to harass her so she didn't care. It isn't like the skirt didn't come with built in shorts underneath that would keep anyone from seeing her undies.

She sat and watched them for a bit, the two brown ones (which for all intents and purposes were identical to her untrained eyes) were the farthest from her, looking like her mother's dogs when they play fought. They pawed at each other while their little round tails shook back-and-forth enough that their whole body was moving with them.

The green one had its eye on her as it laid down, eyes drooping ever so slightly like it wanted to nap, while the purple one was munching down on some. . . dirt?

Rocks?

It was eating rocks.

Raegan looked next to her, where a perfectly reasonable little rock sat, waiting to be picked up. Then she looked back at the little herd. She knew when her dogs were sick, they would eat grass. Her mom told her so. Was this the same thing? She couldn't imagine it would make their stomachs feel better.

She never heard of anything eating rocks to survive.

Or in general.

Slowly she picked up the rock, like it might bite her. She turned it over in her hands several times, procrastinating, before she finally stood up with it pressed against her stomach. It seemed like any old rock to her, rubbing off dirt into her hand as she held onto it. She compared it to the rocks the rock-beast was eating. They looked the same.

She waited thirty seconds.

Then she took a teeny step forward, toward the herd. None of them noticed. The twin brown ones even came a little closer in their playing. She moved closer as well, and the green one became more alert as it watched her. None of them growled though.

She would give the purple one her rock, but it seemed a little preoccupied with its own feast, so she looked to the brown ones. She'd sooner get trampled than get their attention. They were too rowdy. So she drifted toward the sleepy green one.

Would it be calmer since it was tired? Or grumpier?

She held the rock out once she got closer, and, almost like she crossed an invisible line, the beast sprung up as soon as she got within a few arm's lengths of it.

She jumped a little, taking her arm back, but Greenie was not deterred. It came a little closer, its eyes a little adoring as it drooled a little on the dirt under them. It stared intently at the rock in her hand, not her at all. Maybe their big scary chompers were made for chewing rocks and not people?

So she slowly reached out the rock to it, she said a little shakily, "Hey, buddy, you wanna snack?" As soon as she felt the beast's breath on her fingertips, she dropped the rock (thankfully into the thing's mouth).

It purred at her a little as its huge teeth crunched on it, something keen to a smile on its face. She looked around for any rocks in the immediate area, reminded of the time she spent a weekend at her Grampa's and fed his horses some grass she picked up. Once she found one suitable, she went to hand it over to the green one, but nearly bumped into it when she realized it was right behind her.

She liked the adoring look in its eyes. Or she hoped it was adoring. It might just like being fed food.

Not that she was looking particularly hard. The rocks were everywhere.

So she gave the rock to the beast again, this time, Greenie rubbed his nose against her hand, surprising her. She smiled a little, giving it a little rub. She let her fingers roam across his face experimentally before examining the rounded bumps on its chin like the bee-beast had.

She didn't know how long she stayed there, just feeding Greenie some rocks until the brown twins showed up and she gave them a share. The four rock-beasts seemed close and friendly. They didn't fight over who got fed by her, just nosed their way until they were right in front of her. Their shaking tails seemed to move up their whole bodies as they licked their teeth at her.

She almost didn't notice when Greenie vanished because at that point the purple one had come back to her, and she spent the morning feeding each of them their little snacks. The twins crashed into a huffing pile a little while later, sleepy, and the purple one strolled off to a corner and out of her sight for a moment (she was thinking about what she would do next), when two things happened.

One, she suddenly heard a slushy and grunting sound over by Purple; and two, Greenie returned.

At first she had looked over to Purple, whose backside was to her, then she glanced at the approaching Greenie. She did a double take and trained her eyes at the feet of the purple rock-monster. A glowing orange-yellow clumpy liquid that pooled around. She gaped. She blinked.

Is that  _lava_? But then her view was blocked by an excited and chipper (honestly, puppy-like) Greenie. She really jumped back when she saw it open its mouth so wide, at first afraid it would eat her, but then she saw the slick and slimy gray bundle that spilled from its mouth at her muddy shoes.

At first it disgusted her, then another part of her mind thought, are they feeding her because she fed them? She nearly gagged.

Fish?

He held a hand over her mouth.

Once she was sure she could stomach the sight, she looked down at the saliva covered 'meal.' There were about three of them, all about as long as her forearm. As if trying to push survival skills onto her, her stomach chose that moment to let out an obnoxious roar.

Her mouth was drooling. Not at the sight, but she was just  _so hungry_. She looked down at the fish, then at the smiling, green rock-puppy.

Then she watched as the smug, purple rock-puppy walked away from his lava mess with a skip in its step.

She gagged again.


	3. New fish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raegan eats breakfast

She made it through the horror, with much trial and error.

The lava didn't seem to be going anywhere any time soon, so she took to time to walk around through the wooded treeline just a little ways away. The rock-puppies stayed close by, but only Greenie really followed her around as she looked for a suitable stick.

She saw it on TV, it can't be that hard. Her growling stomach agreed.

Eventually she found a reasonable stick. It was straight and not particularly thick or muddy. She thought about washing it off in the stream, but didn't think that would go too well or really make it any cleaner, so she just trusted that it would do the job for just today. She was  _starving_.

Greenie had taken to following her on her heels like a duckling. Or a puppy. Or a hungry cat.

Raegan just made her way to the fish, trying to avoid looking at them at all cost, and stuck out her hand to grab the smallest one. She was surprised by how slippery it was, either from the dragon saliva or just the way the gray fish felt, and she dropped it immediately. She shook out her hand of the juices before trying again.

She heard about people gutting fish before, but she didn't know how to do that or what she would do it with, so when she finally got her hand on the slimy gunk, she just shoved the stick down its throat until she hit resistance near the tail. She didn't know if she was supposed to stick it all the way through or not.

Then she moved over to the little puddle of lava several meters away. She could feel the heat from it several feet away, but forced herself to step closer. Then she sat on her bottom so she wouldn't end up pathetically losing her balance and falling into the lava and dying. Or just getting terribly burned. She shivered at the thought.

Then she held her stick and fish over the lava close enough that it would heat up enough to cook.

The fish slipped off the end of the stick and into the lava where it burst into flames and burnt up all black.

She looked at the sky and sighed as deep as she could.

She went back for the second fish. This time, she stuck the stick all the way through it and moved back to her little cooker. She held it on one side for a while, until she felt like it was done and then flipped it over. She wasn't sure what it should look like once it was through though, maybe smoking?

She flipped it over and over until it looked about good then pulled it back closer to her where she experimentally touched the side of it.

It burned her hand, she dropped the stick and fish in the lava puddle, it caught fire and burnt up all black.

It took a little longer to find a stick as good as the one she lost, but eventually she made herself (it's too late to be breakfast now) lunch. She nibbled on it and gagged a few times, but her hunger overpowered her taste-buds and uneven cooking.

Then she sat down with the rock-puppies, tired after everything that had happened, and decided to play around with them.

She grabbed another rock and decided to play catch with the twins (she had decided to stick with calling them that, she couldn't tell them apart anyhow). She would toss it up in the air, they would catch it and eat it, and she would praise them.

She had tried to discretely peek under them to find out a gender and concluded that they were both boys (as far as she could tell). She did the same with the green and purple ones to figure out that Ms. Purple is the only female of the group. Maybe the momma or sister.

"Good boy!" She would call out when they made a good catch, clapping and smiling to clearly show off the positive reinforcement her mother used with her dogs. " _Good_  boy!"

She spent a long time with the four of them, enough so that she gave the twins names, hoping that they would answer to their name so she could tell them apart by calling them out. She randomly picked the one on the left to be Max and the one on the right to be Sam.

The purple lady was Ms. Purple, and Greenie was Greenie.

She would deny it in front of the others, but Greenie was her favorite.

It was about this time that she started getting thirsty. Her throat was parched and she was a little tired from throwing rocks for the boys. It wasn't like a soccer ball. They were  _rocks_. And heavy. And the rock-puppies seemed like bottomless pits when they ate.

That's what her mom called her brother when he ate like a pig.

So, when she nervously began thinking about wandering back to the stream, she looked around at the puppers around her. She thought about asking them to come with her. They were sociable and nice. She liked them and didn't think they wanted to eat her (based on her superior knowledge she didn't have this morning that rock-puppies eat  _rocks_  and not meat-people). They were tall and lumbering and from around here.

She didn't want to go alone.

"Greenie," She called out his name to make him look up happily. They seemed smart enough to know their names, only time would tell if the twins would keep their names as well. "Come with me."

She beckoned him with her hand and he just stared at her. She tried patting her legs like you would with a dog. He panted with his tongue hanging out until a fly caught his attention and he turned away from her.

She resorted to her last option, and picked up a rock.

Then she called his name, "Greenie, come here!"

And he came, trotting over happily.

She started to walk away and he walked on beside her, almost walking into a tree when he refused to look away from the food in her hand. She decided it was cruel to just hold it and make him wait, so she handed it over while they walked. He made a gleeful face, and continued following her. Score!

They reached the stream in no time. This time around, she had heard it before she saw it. Without the problem of the literal impossible to see out of darkness, she could see that the stream seemed relatively clear. It didn't look dirty and was flowing just fine.

So she slowly knelt down and cupped her hands to hold onto some of the water to drink.

It was extremely cold, and hurt some of her teeth.

She really needed to brush them soon.

The walk back to the rock pile was just as uneventful, only this time when she got back, she was greeted by the sight of the enormous bee-beast. The snoozing one from the cave. Getting a good look at her actually moving around, it was easy to see that she wasn't nearly as scary as Raegan had thought last night in the dark.

She was a light brown color, more faded than the twins who were rich earthy. She had a little gray around her mouth and nose, along with some of the bumps along her chin, now that Raegan was looking.

What really stood out to her were the bee's eyes. They were half lidded, tired looking, but not unhappy. But the color was unlike the four rock-puppies' eyes, which were all the same bright yellow. The old lady's eyes were a little clouded over like a blind person. Or at least couldn't see too well.

That didn't seem to stop the bee-beast from hopping over to her as soon as she knew she was there.

Hopping is a kind word. She was  _bounding_.

It really sent Raegan's heart to her stomach for several seconds before the beast came to a halt in front of her and gave her a full-body lick. The force of it sent her back a step, made her close her eyes, slicked back her hair, and pulled up her skirt.

Raegan slowly pulled a disgusted hand out to wipe off her face. Then she looked at the older beast that took her last night. She was panting much like the rock-puppies were, and her eyes were as kind as can be, as foggy as they were. She didn't seem to be pulling her mouth back in a snarl or had any hesitation about approaching her. Much more trusting than the rock-puppies.

Raegan gave the elder a little pat on the nose, hesitantly. The bee seemed to respond happily, rubbing her enormous face into the teeny appendage, so Raegan gave her more pats until the bee was so happy that she just nuzzled her face right into Raegan's torso, knocking her to the ground and setting her head right by her in affection. The little huffs and coo's reminded her of a bird or dog. It was kinda cute actually.


	4. Laundry and attacks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raegan does laundry and gets an unexpected surprise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just like to let everyone know in case you haven't figured it out or I'm a terrible writer, that Greenie, Ms. Purple and the gang are Gronckles while her 'abductor' is a Hotburple.

Several things happened in the next week.

She washed her clothes (one at a time. She didn't want to wander around out by the stream completely naked (She dried them by laying them over the winged hippo that took her in since their skin was like a heater and didn't seem to care)); got rid of her shoes (her socks had been destroyed and the shoes were giving her blisters); accepted the fact that she was going to be having fish for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the foreseeable future; and learned more about her new neighbors.

First, she named the one she slept with. She started calling the elderly beast  _Bee_  affectionately when she gave her belly-rubs in the few hours everyday that she was actually awake. Bee liked to come out of the cave to find her and coo into her torso. She gently rubbed her entire face against Raegan before going to find a suitable pile of dirt to lay down in. Raegan wasn't sure if it was because she was so old and gassy or if Bee had always been like that.

"Bee, you're so lazy!" Raegan would tell her newly appointed guardian, hands on her hips and a disappointed stance. Bee didn't care.

She had become more connected to her rock friends. Greenie was still her favorite, so she learned from him that they loved belly-rubs as well. All she had to do was go over beside them and begin rubbing about their smoother underside, and they would just fall over for her to pet on them. They would almost purr at her and their floppy tongues would slip out and into the dirt. As long as she stayed away from their chins (she'd been growled at the last time she touched there), she was loved and adored by them all.

Her life with them was relatively simple, she'd say. She mostly just went about on a schedule of waking up snuggled against Bee and leaving the cave to go spend some time with the four happy puppies just a short walk from the cave. They seemed to stay around the same place. If they ever did wander off (she had actually been lucky enough to see them  _fly_  a few times), there was always at least one of them left behind to hold down the fort.

Saying that, it was usually Ms. Purple or Greenie that brought her fish to eat. The number changed by the day, but never under two. Two days ago, she had been given seven, which now lay (really smelly) over to the side of their play area.

Raegan had been having her own troubles. Loneliness. She still really missed her mom, cried over it several times since she got there. The back of her mind still told her repeatedly,  _I just need to wait for her. Mom will find me_. That didn't make her miss cuddling with her mom on the couch any less, but she wasn't completely hopeless. She couldn't wait to get home and have her mother sit with her in her bed, saying soothing words and petting her hair gently like a mother should.

It was hard enough. She tried not to think about it too much unless she chased that rabbit and ended up a mess in a puddle of her own tears.

She had started too late in keeping track of the days, like she's seen done on TV and in movies. She knew how to use tally marks. She was in  _third_  grade. Of course she only thought to do this when she was beginning to have trouble remembering how long she had actually been there. It crossed her mind once that knowing might make it worse, but she immediately repressed that and took a rock to the front end of the cave, where she knew Bee wouldn't eat it, and tallied up as many days as she thought she'd been there.

It made her proud to look so grown up doing it, even if she caught herself forgetting and had to tally  _twice_ every once and a while.

She also liked to play around with her friends in her boredom. She would catch herself sitting down against a rock, with Greenie sat down next to her, and then she would count up the teeth he had protruding his mouth (ranging from eighteen to twenty-five every time she counted (she wasn't the best at math and Greenie liked to move around)). They were enormous compared to her. Many were as long as her hands, even more were  _longer_. He had two on either end that were about four times bigger than her hands, thick and pointy. She played around with his mouth while he relaxed beside her.

The few scratches she had on her arms and legs from thrashing around in Bee's mouth were beginning to heal and didn't really hurt at all. She tried to break her habit of picking at them when she was bored, she didn't have an actual bath to wash up in and had to go down to the stream to wash up with her humongous bodyguards.

She already loved them, cooing at them when she petted their faces. They were very docile, now that they trusted her.

This made day three very special to her. She finally got around to trying to get on Greenie's back, really surprised that it took her that long to think of it as an option. He was taller than her, by a lot, so she had to get him to follow her over to one of the larger rocks that she found she could climb onto (with great difficulty that made her arms really sore). She grabbed onto the rock and would pull herself up, bare-feet now pushing up against the rock as she tried to propel herself up. She was almost up when she felt the rounded nose of Greenie press against her bottom and push her up the rest of the way. The sweetie.

She grinned at him when she got up all the way, sat and looking down the side. Greenie was eyeing her curiously. She gave him a  _come here_  motion, "Come here, buddy," the only thing she'd gotten them to really understand. He did so without question, looking at the rock curiously. He was still a little taller than her, but she could actually get on him now if he stood just right.

There was a lot of her lifting her leg up, and him turning the complete opposite way she needed him to so that he could look at her as curious as a kitten. He didn't get what she was trying to do until she finally nabbed him and was sitting strangely on his back, right in front of his wings.

He looked up at her while they both got used to the sensation. He was wider than a horse, which made her legs feel funny; but he was also bareback which made her nervous about where to hold on. It would be a long way down for her to fall, really bruise up her side if she did. She moved her hands between the sides of his head and around his neck, to the joints that connected his wings to his back. Nothing really seemed right, so she settled for holding onto (as gently as she could, still unsure how he would react (even though she had found him to be as sweet as can be the last few days)) the small little miniature wing things she assumed were his ears directly above his head.

He didn't react negatively, so she gave him a little pat and held just a wee bit firmer. She shifted around on his back while they looked at each other, then she nervously said, "Let's go." She rocked a little on him, hoping he would get the message.

And they were off. Greenie started walking around the little rocky home like he always did, occasionally looking up at her with a smile like he was a curious about it as she was with him. He never ran, but stayed a gentle pace that kept her seated safely on his back. She was curious about riding something as big as him without a saddle or proper harness. She could feel her little bottom slide every so often so she would have to readjust herself to get comfortable again. It would take some getting used to before she was more professional.

His rough scaly skin felt weird against her bare legs, but it was still very heated and was like a built in seat warmer. She could really appreciate it. She stayed on his back all afternoon, getting a new groove for their coordination. She would lean which way she wanted to go and he would oblige. She would accidentally lean to far, and almost fall.

A learning experience that surprisingly made her legs sore the next morning when she woke up in the cuddly form of her Bee. She spent every day on his back after that, always climbing up onto the same rock and getting a little more used to riding him. At least every time since the first, he had known what she was trying to do and allowed it eagerly.

They polished their riding into a sort of comfortable cooperation, and they explored farther into the trees together. She felt very safe on his back, comforted by him. She even found herself warmer when she stayed with him than when she walked alone. It isn't like he had any objections. None of the others seemed to react at all either. Like they accepted her without a thought in just a few days.

They seemed pretty domesticated, really, even if it was by her (on accident (and unknowingly)).

So over the next days, she had slowly been traveling farther from the cave; exploring the area and mapping it out in her head, however unconsciously it was. She found little landmarks she liked to revisit. There was the cave, the stream, the rocky plain where she played with the puppies, a few very impressive trees that were getting easier to climb now that she had memorized the different paths to get up them (even if she never went very high), and a whole lot of rocks and plants.

She was pretty entertained by it, using the simple walks to bond more with her scaly friend. She was getting bolder, too. More confident. Enough so that it was very surprising and scary for her to actually be attacked by something. It happened after a streak of extraordinary peace and quiet. On day eight, they traveled farther still, looking for another landmark or something that might help her make her way home. Like a road.

She was approaching another particularly interesting tree, an old one that looked like it had some interesting and low hanging branches she could reach if Greenie lifted her up. She'd been getting more used to standing on him without wobbling by working in baby steps (the only steps she had). She would draw her legs up and balance on him on her arms and legs, grateful that he was more intelligent than an actual horse and worked with her so she didn't fall. Once she felt like trying more, she would sit on her knees, then her feet and hands, then sit in a small crouch while she held onto something (like a large rock wall or a tree branch).

She was getting better at the whole thing, and used the tree as a handle while she got used to it all. She was curious if there were any fruit up in the tree and peered at it closely in case she could see any obvious colors. She was tired of terribly cooked fish.

She was standing straight up on Greenie's back, her palms on the tree and wondering how easily she could climb onto the lowest branch when something launched itself onto her shoulders and knocked her off of her companion and into the dirt.


	5. Dragons?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raegan finally puts a name to the reptiles.

Raegan landed hard on her side, and, just as predicted, she knew that falling off Greenie was going to hurt _bad_  later.

It hurt bad  _now_.

Never mind whatever it was that was now scratching about her face and crawling over her shoulders and neck, she couldn't  _breath_. The fall had knocked the breath from her enough that it made her forget how to draw air in for a horrifying ten seconds. She was literally paralyzed with her fear, suddenly terrified of dying.

She couldn't breath.

She wasn't breathing.

Why wasn't her chest working?

She'd heard of lungs collapsing. Is that what happened to her? How would she know? It hurt so  _bad_!

But she's in the middle of the forest, her mom won't be able to take her to the hospital! What is she going to do?

She couldn't see or move, and the feeling of whatever it was that attacked her was on her didn't phase her as much as the idea of not being able to breath. That was her worst nightmare, hand-in-hand with drowning. And sharks. She was scared of sharks.

The absolute relief she felt when she finally drew in a breath several seconds later was unparalleled. She slowly sat up, lopsided from the sudden pain on her right side where she had landed and she waited for most of the feeling to subside before her eyes decided to start working again. She wasn't going to be able to sit right for a while, but she immediately drew up her legs and kicked back a bit so she could back away from whatever it was that attacked her.

She might have screamed when she fell, but now she couldn't make a sound. She just looked over to where Greenie had joined her side, concern in his big, yellow eyes. He was making a rumble in his chest; but didn't seem worried about what had launched itself into her face, not that that calmed  _her_  any. She snapped her head around, still dizzy from the landing, to look around for the accused.

Her eyes landed in front of her where the largest lizard she had ever seen crouched, staring at her.

Her blood went cold when she recognized it as more. . . dragon looking. It had wings. Like Greenie. It had bulging eyes narrowed slightly at her and a long slithering tail. Its paws had dark honed claws on them, and it made a sound deep in its throat. She didn't have anything to compare it to, but it didn't sound threatening. Just an extraordinarily rude dragon-looking thing that had jumped from the tree to push her down.

She didn't quite know if it had done so out of malicious intent, but as of right now it was just standing right in front of her, all signs of aggression gone.

The fall had spooked her, making her adrenaline freak her out far more than necessary; but she did see that Greenie looked fine with the dragon. . . and was a dragon himself?

Raegan had the usual picture of a dragon in her mind that she'd gotten from Hollywood and social media and the like. A western dragon's design. Not at all like Chinese ones with beards and 90% snake body. Raegan liked western dragons much more, thank you very much. She was a little happier to say that real dragons looked like this. If she were being honest, she would be a lot more scared if it were a Chinese dragon.

Not that this one wasn't unnerving.

She didn't like seeing dragons in real life. They were scary and new and  _unfamiliar_.

This newcomer looked a lot like a conventional dragon, only it was about half (maybe a third) of her size. It had large nostrils, and the teeniest of horns sprouting from its noggin. Its eyes were yellow, but much paler than Greenie's. It had orangish scales with darker red wings folded up by its back and a paler, sandy belly. She hesitantly shifted into a less fight or flight position, glancing at her green. . . dragon by her right side.

Greenie was laying down with his nose sitting beside her, watching her with worry.

She pet him on his nose, "I'm okay, boy." She tried to reassure the both of them.

Dragons were  _real_. It would explain why they had wings, such sharp teeth, and spat lava.

Then she turned her full attention to the new one who had tilted its head at her almost a full ninety degrees. It really reminded her of the cat and little girl from the movie Coraline. She tilted her head in the same exaggerated way.

In the back of her mind, she had though about how this was nearly the same way she reacted to Ms. Purple when she approached her. Ms. Purple had given her a big ol' sniff, so Raegan had sniffed her right back. Somehow it had convinced the rocky dragon not to attack her.

She was a little calmer, her tense muscles relaxing, when she saw the little dragon tilt its head the other way. It gave a little chirp at her. She mimicked it without a second thought, chirping as well.

She saw as its tail wagged behind it, a little more comfortable now. She reached out her right hand ever so slightly.

The little orange dragon pulled back just a little, before taking a little step forward. Her heart have a little jump at the sight. Unlike the rock puppies, this little creature's eyes didn't give nearly as much away. She found Greenie and Ms. Purple so much easier to read. She had to get used to it, she supposed. The dragon moved a lot like a lizard. It seemed like its version of a walk was always so speedy, even when it was nervous. Like a ridiculous game of Red-Light, Green-Light where you're constantly at full throttle. He took two steps forward, and she saw his little nose twitch as he eyed her up.

Then he moved a little closer so that if she tried, she could easily reach out and touch him. He brushed against her palm, curious about the pets he could receive. He was warm like Bee and Greenie but in a different way somehow. His scales were softer, not nearly as rock-like as she had come to associate with her herd, but still tougher than her skin.

He would be considered enormous next to Raegan's mother's bulldogs, but next to Greenie, the new dragon was minuscule. Raegan wanted to keep him at once. Not that it seemed to be that hard, the critter had then moved forward into her lap to examine her face. She was taking the time to innocently look over his scales in close detail on his face.

She was distracted from this when he took his big chompers and bit her nose.

She squeaked and jerked back, then paused a second. He didn't let go. She pushed her arms against his little paws which were gripping her torso, and making another set of marks on her arms when they cut the skin ever so slightly.

It stung her enough that her eyes started watering almost immediately. She lashed out in her pain, pushing against its little body, but its grip was tight. If anything, it bit down harder, so she tried her best to stick her fingers into it's mouth to pry it open manually. She had trouble finding the right hold on the little reptile, because all she ended up doing was rubbing her hands on its face and chin.

When she realized what she had grabbed onto, and essentially rubbed, she was a little scared. None of the rock-like dragons aside from Bee liked to have their chins touched, and this one was  _biting_ her. She was very confused when he let go of her face in favor of rubbing against her hand and then curling up on her tense legs.

She watched as his eyes rolled a little at the feeling, and scratched him a little harder. It looked like he really liked it, because he gave a little sound in his chest and pushed into her fingers happily.

She was skeptical about this one.

She didn't want to force him from her lap, in case he got annoyed and decided to nip her nose again, but she didn't want him around if it was a thing he did constantly. She toyed with the idea that he was a baby and didn't know any better, but in that case she  _really_  didn't want him around in case his momma showed up to take him back. She watched TV. She knew how these situations ended.

She decided to slowly ease him off of her lap, and stand up to leave. Let him do what he wanted.

Raegan woke up early the next morning to find him and two others of the same species had curled up with her next to Bee sometime in the night.

She named him Wybie, and his two friends were Mel and Charlie.


	6. Hopeless flying

No momma ever came looking for Wybie, Mel, or Charlie. Or at least, none that ever cared about Raegan. She woke up in the morning in a good enough mood that she and her three new companions flew after her curiously. She finished a bit of a morning routine, going out to the treeline to pee, cleaning up by the stream, and moving back to greet Greenie and the gang. Only this time, she had three little friends following her.

The next days weren't very great for her emotionally. She had now been in the woods for over a week. Her hair was a mess, she was never a comfortable temperature, and her legs were still sore from getting used to riding Greenie every day (and her arms were sore from climbing that rock so many times). Most of the scratches on her arms and legs had healed up and now displayed pale pink scars that would eventually go away.

Her nose had hurt for a few days, but Wybie the Teeny Dragon hadn't bit her with his teeth. It was more like nipping her with really hard and tough gums, so it never tore the skin. It had been red for a while, and pain shot through her whenever something touched it; but after three days, it was more or less fine.

The pile of slightly older and smelly fish she hadn't eaten had found a use. She used them as treats to the three little ones. She got them to be able to sit, stay, come when called, and fly on command (though she wasn't able to make them go in any specific direction). They also had a habit of trying to steal her daily fish from the rock-dragons when they brought her something to eat, but she usually caught them and took back a little for herself.

They didn't stay with her every night, but they did come and visit her every couple days to play or eat her snacks.

The new dragons definitely had nothing to do with the fact that she and Greenie didn't return to the tree she found them at for several days. She just didn't feel like going out that way. She swears.

By the twelfth day, her radius of explored territory had grown enough that she could find her way around much easier. She had traveled far enough that she began to see other little dragons like Wybie and his little group more often. As long as she stayed a respectable distance, or encouraged a game of fetch with them, they didn't mind or attack her.

She also learned that they weren't very good team players even when she mostly saw them in packs. When she would pick up a stick to play fetch with them (which she learned they liked from spending time with Wybie), they would often go after it as all individuals. They would fight over it sometimes, then in a blurry of smoke and fire, the stick would turn to ashes and they would return to her empty-handed.

They could breath fire, by the way.

Raegan learned that little tidbit early on.

Anyway.

So day twelve.

Raegan was much more comfortable with playing with the other dragons, she even really appreciated messing around with Bee when she was awake. They might not do many things together, but she could tell that the elderly dragon was very gentle and careful with her. There was a comfort in having someone to sleep with. Even if the role could have been filled by Greenie, she preferred Bee's slightly smoother scales to the rock-dragon.

Raegan isn't sure what she would have done if she had been alone during it all. It was now on day twelve, and she would have starved or something. Or frozen to death.

However, this day, she had a bit of a plan. Something unusual for her. She didn't make plans or have an agenda she wanted to work out. She might have a schedule, but she didn't decide what she was going to do that much in advance. But she just felt like it was a special occasion, convinced herself that she was going to do the thing.

Only this day, she woke up and decided with all her might that she was going to fly today. She had been riding the dragon for nine days, now. Several hours each time, and she could even notice a difference in her legs. She didn't have to try quite as hard to get on top of the rock she used to get on Greenie, and she was getting so that she didn't slip and slide as much even if the hard scales hurt her butt after so long. She pushed through.

She could even crouch on Greenie now, as long as he was stationary, for a few seconds before her legs began to wobble and she had to sit down again. But she was getting there!

She woke up optimistic as could be; and just a few minutes later, she was on Greenie's back and ready to get going. She had to stop her boy from taking off walking into the woods. She knew he and his three amigos preferred to walk or run to flying because it was faster for them. Compared to the little dragons she saw, they were rather slow and clumsy.

Their wings flapped as fast as a humming bird with the sound of a bee buzzing. She hadn't really seen Bee fly yet, but she assumed it was the same for her. It was very different to the way the teeny dragons flew, which was a picture of grace in comparison.

She patted Greenie on the head a second making him pause to look up at her, then she pointed up to the sky and made the same motion she did when she trained the teeny dragons to fly on command, "Up!"

She didn't know exactly what she expected, but Greenie got up in the air no problem at all. He batted his wings just a few times, and then she was wobbling on his back trying to stay up right. Greenie didn't do much more, he just glanced back at her and waited for her to get her bearings before turning his head back toward a slightly curious Ms. Purple.

It was really quite a sight, even from just a few meters up in the air like they were. She could see over the treeline for quite a little ways, spotting the cut in them where she knew the stream traveled before the water moved off out of her sight. It was interesting enough, now she was very curious. If her mom couldn't find her like this, then maybe she could go look for her mom!

"Good boy, Greenie," Raegan gave him pets on his head while they both got used to flying together.

She didn't want to go too far, too soon, so she settled for a simple flight around their little camp. The leaning worked just as well as it had with him when he was walking, if a little more sensitive. They had to work out together which path they were going to take, especially if they ever wanted to fly between the trees like she'd seen Max and Sam do a few times. She was pretty grateful that she had spent such a long time riding him on the ground, otherwise she would be far worse off.

Once she was confident in herself staying on the dragon's back, she decided that a clear way of trying to see her neighborhood would be to get him to fly up higher. Maybe she could get a better view over the trees and see some houses. . .

After a long two minutes of trial and error as she tried to signal to Greenie to fly up.

Her already adrenaline-filled chest felt absolutely devastated when she spotted that the only thing on the other side of the forest was a vast ocean off in the sunset. She made a confused, not-understanding, involuntary sound in her throat.

Her heart sank deeper in her chest when she slowly got Greenie to turn 360 degrees around. As far as she could see, she was on an island in the middle of nowhere.


	7. The beach and a new dragon

It's pretty needless to say that she spent the next hour on the ground coming to terms with it and mulling it over in her mind. She ran over any possible ways she could think of that she ended up on in island with  _dragons_ , how she could have possibly gotten into the mess, and why she was there. It looked like her friends knew she was devastated, because the four of them had gathered around her pretty soon. Even if Ms. Purple just lay down nearby, eyes sympathetic, while the twins spent time gathering up particularly tasty-looking rocks and placing them by the human's side to try and cheer her up.

The thought was nice, even if she didn't know how to tell the two that she didn't eat them.

She wasn't sure how to react to it all. It explained why her mom hadn't found her yet, but she was still unsure of where she actually was. Was it some island no one had discovered yet? Is that why she hadn't known dragons were real?

_How_ did she get here? Or should she ask, how did  _she_  get here? Or maybe, How did she get  _here_?

She was so distracted by it all, suddenly very scared and anxious about being alone forever, that she hadn't noticed when Bee lumbered out of the cave early. She wasn't usually up until after lunch, but here she was slithering on over to a very Raegan on a mission.

Bee was motherly, something that both comforted and hurt Raegan when she noted it. Ms. Purple and one of the twins moved out of the way when the elderly lady approached the small semi-circle. She laid down beside Raegan, who was on the verge of crying now that her shock was leaving her. When she landed on her belly, a small burst of dirt was pushed in every which way, making the eight year old look up.

The gentle giant placed her head by the ground beside her, pressing her lower mouth up the length of her left leg. It seemed to radiate heat through her skirt and on her bare skin, and Raegan couldn't help but lean over and half-hug, half-lay on her. Her guardian was as kind and comforting as anyone could be now. They couldn't communicate with words, but this was a  _loud_  silence.

Around noon (it seemed like the dragons had some sort of internal clock, because they were always on time (even when it came to the time they went to the bathroom every day)), Ms. Purple and Greenie had come back to her with more fish than they'd ever brought her before, finally pulling her mind back into place to get her going again.

She thanked them quietly, giving each of them a grateful hug when they deposited the meals at her feet.

A few hours later, she was on a full stomach and climbing back onto her rock. Bee was laying off to the side, watching her with adoring and  _proud_  eyes, while Greenie skipped on over to get into position. Raegan climbed onto his back without a problem, and he looked up at her for direction.

"Up."

She was still not used to actually flying, but she forced herself to stay on and got situated for a reasonably long flight. She was going to have a look around the perimeter of this island now that she knew where she was. She was going to explore its every nook and cranny and eventually get to building herself some sort of home here.

Maybe not an actual physical one, but she was going to do this.

Getting up in the air high enough to fly over the trees took some getting used to, but she did her best to not squeeze Greenie too tight when she became nervous and looked down. Not that he seemed to notice one way or the other, his sides were as hard as the rocks he ate, but she couldn't help it. She just leaned down on her mount and tried to ignore the bite of the wind as they headed for the stream's cut in the trees.

Her only immediate plan was to follow the stream to the shore where she guessed it poured out into the water. Maybe find some find some unique landmark on the way that helped her navigate better.

She could follow the water just fine, over the leaves that packed around it. The flight itself, uneventful, as she tried to look around for anything obvious she could remember. She glanced around as she passed by a few empty patches of grass around the water, and then at the occasional flock of teeny dragons as they barked at her curiously.

It took her a long five minutes to reach the shore, where she leaned forward slightly to try and signal for Greenie to land. He began his decent easily enough, but it would probably take Raegan a little while to get used to the landing part. She didn't want to get off of Greenie's back, in case she wasn't able to get back on him without climbing on something else first. If she did, she would have to make the whole walk back, and she wasn't looking forward to that.

Once she could stand on the beach, she could see a few scattered shells around, maybe a few rocks, but the thing she was most interested in was the distant rocks out at sea. They were very tall, too far to swim to, but could still be counted as part of the island, she supposed. It didn't look like there was anything on it, just a simple landmark.

She might go check it out later.

To the left of the beach was a tall and sharp cliff that cut off at the water. Raegan didn't like the look of it too well, especially at the sight of the large pile of rocks near the bottom. She was a little nervous at the idea of falling down from that height. The beach to her right simply curved around to the rest of the island.

This beach was nothing like she was used to. It looked like on a shore like this, there was no threat of getting a bad sun burn like in back home.

She pushed down the feeling of homesickness at the memory and stared with a little too much force at the treeline for a distraction from it.

The rest of that day was really the same, spent wandering around the sand with Greenie. Examining the cliff-side and then the flowing stream as it dipped into the sea. She had to leave when she got too cold, suddenly exposed to the freezing wind as it came from over the water.

That night she slept curled up in a tight ball against Bee's belly.

* * *

She had forgotten to tally a mark for the twelfth day, so she had to mark twice when she woke up.

The signs in the cave wall seemed to be pretty permanent now. None of them had been wearing off, which she was a little grateful for. One less thing to worry about.

Her main concern, she thought, when she stepped into the treeline to pee was finding something else to eat. She was sick of fish. She might be more used to only drinking water now, but she did not want to live off of one meal for the rest of her life. It also couldn't be that healthy.

Not that the last bit was a huge concern for her at the moment. She was already feeling a little more energetic now that she wasn't living off of junk food and soda. The little 'work' she did every day was enough that she usually slept very sound at night, unless she was kept up by her thoughts.

So when she left the stream from cleaning up and headed on over to Greenie to get on his back, she planned on maybe finding something else to eat like berries or fruit. She was a little nervous about eating random foods she found, but if she saw something easily recognizable like blueberries or blackberries or apples or something, she wouldn't mind.

She decided to go down to her usual place by the stream and work her way from there. She sat crossed legged on Greenie's back and directed him gently by using his ears, deciding to now follow the stream to the right to see what she could find.

From what she knew of the island now, it was fairly decent sized. Many other dragons she hadn't seen could live here. Straight left from her cave, the land gradually rose and rose until it cut off at the sea, a little to the right was the beach that connected to the stream that moved pretty even through the land. She guessed she had gotten lost a little on the other side of the stream in the forest, when she first arrived here. It had been too dark for her to really get a good look.

For now, she was going to study every thing on this side of the water.

As soon as she decided to ride Greenie along the edge, it seemed like the stream decided to curve and turn every which way to make it near impossible to follow comfortably on foot. She was almost forced to direct Greenie back into the air so she could travel it easier.

Greenie didn't pause in his steady walk when the pulled back a little, just started beating his bee-wings and pushed himself into the sky. She watched as the land gradually rose into a simple hill, where the water had thinned out slightly as it traveled quicker down the trek. She couldn't really look at any plants this way, but she did land on top of the hill easily for a good look from its height.

When she finally reached the top of it at the source of the freshwater, where the trees had gradually become scarce, she was very surprised at the sudden sight of the sleeping dragon sunning itself in the mid-morning light.

She froze at once, at first very scared, and then a little curious. Mostly a bit of both. She'd been there almost two weeks and hadn't seen a dragon this big before. She assumed it had lived on the island with her the entire time, so she guessed it just might have been comfortable with wherever its home was and didn't care about the rock dragons or her.

She shouldn't have been surprised at the sight of a new kind of dragon, considering she'd already seen two.

She slowly nudged Greenie to land on the side of the hill, just where she could peek up at the new beast's sleeping form. She didn't want the noisy beat of her dragon friend's wings to wake up the new one before she was ready. Examining the creature closely, at first she thought it was two dragons sleeping together, but eventually she followed the long entangled necks enough to see that they both connected to the same body. They had two heads.

It looked like they were a blueish green color, napping happily and looking pretty calm and harmless. They looked a lot closer to the teeny dragons she had seen, Wybie and his friends, than they did the rock-dragons and Bee. She wondered how she could introduce herself and not get eaten. Her best chance would be to somehow befriend this dragon and show she wasn't a threat.

It would only be a matter of time before they found her anyway, if she stayed here long enough. Hiding would do her no good in the long run.

She decided to turn around and head back to her cave. Maybe they would like the fish she had to offer if she brought enough. It seemed like her little break down, which had lead to the pity party and her dragons bringing her more fish, had come at just the right time.

She could already feel better at the thought of having something to do to distract her. Even the anxious nervousness in her belly was nothing compared to the hopelessness she felt when she learned her mom would not be able to find her.

She just hoped the two-headed beast liked fish.


	8. Two heads to feed

It must have taken Raegan a good half hour to go back to the camp and gather up as much of the fish as she could in her shirt. They were slimy and smelly enough that she was convinced she would have to bathe again soon.

She shivered at the mere thought.

She resorted to shoving fish between the wasteband of her skirt so she could carry them, and then stacking them up in her shirt like a little basket. It would do wonders if she could ever find her backpack again, but she had no hope for that since it probably had washed down into the sea those long two weeks ago.

It was uncomfortable, cold, slimy, and wet; but eventually, she got back onto her rock with a good eight fish with her. It was only a matter of keeping her hold on them as she flew back up to the hill so she could offer them up to the two-heads. She prayed that they didn't eat rocks, but she was more likely to get a reaction from fish. They had this look about them.

They flew at the slowest speed they had ever gone, and Raegan was convinced she smelled more like fish than human by the time they approached the grassy hill. The only upside, it was beginning to warm up just the slightest. She could understand why the dragons would be sunning up here.

She dismounted from Greenie very slowly. Her bare toes were very appreciative of the soft grass under them. She didn't really want Greenie to be a factor when she tried to give the food to the two-heads in case she did something wrong or if they didn't like each other. She slowly walked up the steeper bit of the hill with the fish in plain view.

She peeked over the edge and didn't see anything.

She took another few steps, convinced the dragon was just a little out of sight.

She still didn't see them.

She found herself staring dumbly at the empty hill, looking around in her confusion. It was just here, she looked a little left and then right. Where did it - ?

Unknown to her, as she looked around to the other sides of the hill into the dark trees like she might be able to catch a glimpse of their tails or blue scales between trunks, the two headed dragon was watching her curiously. Or her food. Or both, and was wondering what would be the best way to gobble her up.

It was standing quite plainly beside the worriless rock-dragon, both heads, four eyes watching her as she tried to figure out which way the dragon had headed.

Raegan could see the large patch of grass where the beast had been laying, where the grass had been flattened down. She was just trying to find out which side it had come in from. Maybe where the dragon had left, or if it had left any tracks.

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.

Or maybe she could leave the fish in a little pile and wait for it to come back?

She had turned around and made it a few steps before she spotted the enormous dragon staring down at her. It was still as curious, mostly at her age since most of the humans this dragon had seen were bigger grown men that attacked it. Raegan simply dropped her fish in shock, at least the ones in her shirt, and took a step back as she looked back and forth between its heads.

The dragon took a step forward, turning their heads slightly to get a good look at her. _And_  her fish. All Raegan could do was stand relatively still with her hands up as they looked around at her. They smelled rank, a bit like rotten eggs and it made her gag a bit and turn her head.

Maybe only one head smelled so bad, the other was okay.

She looked between them curiously when more long seconds passed and they made no move to touch or eat her. One of the heads had a pointed horn on its nose, the other was more curved. They both had thinner and dark horns on the backs of their heads, and shared the same yellow eyes as the other dragons she'd seen. It looked like the aggressive and skeptical thin pupils of their eyes were getting a bit thicker as they both slowly relaxed.

Finally, they turned their attention to the fish that were at her feet. About five fish were there, all she could hold in her shirt, while the other three were stuffed in the waist of her skirt. Her own belly rumbled for the first time, starting to get a little hungry for breakfast.

The head on the left perked up at the sound and looked even more curious; the head on the right didn't react at all.

She slowly reached her right hand down to the slimy fish that was dripping on her leg a bit, stopping immediately when the right head growled. When she stilled and the head relaxed, she reached again, trying her best to keep her intentions clear.

"Shh," She tried to sooth them both. "It's okay, buddy. You want some fish?"

It took less subtlety to get a fish in her left hand. The corresponding head seemed calmer and more trusting to her. All she had to do was hold out the two gray fish to either head for them to reach down simultaneously and grab them. They both reminded her of birds, pulling their heads back and swallowing the snacks with just as much enthusiasm.

When they were done, they both looked at her like happy little dogs. Trust earned. Any sign of aggression gone as they both let her brush her hands along their noses.

In just one afternoon, the left head became Bella and the right head was Gabby.


	9. What's this, what's this?

Day eighteen was the first time she found evidence of people on her island.

She was on the beach just beyond where she'd found Bella and Gabby, walking around it thoroughly. The past five days she'd been exploring over her side of the stream, behind where her cave was built into the jagged rocks and cliffs. A place where there was near no vegetation. She explored it with a happy and eager Greenie, followed sometimes by the playful twins (that slowed her expedition a bit, but it was more enjoyable).

There was no beach behind her cave. It was just a hill that cut off, like the cliff by the beach where the stream ended.

She slowly traveled farther left each day, looking the terrain over more and more until it lowered down into sand and water.

There was where she found a bucket.

At first it confused her. She found it half in the sand, where the water had once moved over to smooth the entire thing over. It took some effort to dig up and empty completely, but when she did, she was overjoyed.

A  _bucket_!

She was so excited, she rushed on over to the water, completely forgetting how cold it was for a moment. She was ankle deep when she realized, and she dipped it in the salty water to clean it off of sand for just a few seconds before she moved back. The thing was mainly wooden with some metal bits holding it together. It looked really old fashioned. Or homemade.

Glancing around the rest of the beach, she spotted some other unnatural objects sticking from the ground and rushed around (to the amusement of her mount who tilted his head at her) and picked up all the things she could see.

She found a few broken pieces of wood which were clearly cut by humans; an odd looking fork which she was more likely to stab herself with than actually eat properly; a few maces, oddly enough, which were nearly impossible for her to pick up (they were about as big as  _she_  was!); and a partially burnt and sand-covered sail.

Did a ship wreck?

It only took a little more scavenging to find some barrels lodged in the sand. She was no expert, but she had to guess it was a long time ago. The few barrels that she could uncover a little bit had weird markings on them that she had no hope of ever reading. She didn't recognize many languages, they were usually either labeled 'Chinese' or 'Other' to her mind.

She did the best she could with packing up the few things she could move, and try and gather them up in one pile. She wanted to bring them back to her cave, maybe she could use them for something.

She tried to use the bucket for stuff, but it seemed like none of the maces would fit inside well enough for her to use it to carry them, so she settled for putting her fork inside and setting the maces down beside it. She wasn't too excited about the weapons, but she did want the other stuff. The sail was enormous and heavy, so it took her most of the afternoon to finally uncover it entirely and fold it up into a reasonably movable pile.

Not that she could even pick it up like this, she was doing good to drag it along the beach where the ground was flat and even. She just picked up the bucket, put the fork inside, piled the maces by the sail, and decided to come back to get it tomorrow.

Maybe she could try and get Greenie or someone to open up one of the barrels for her, see what's inside?

She ran over to the treeline, with Greenie on her heel, and climbed up to the lowest branch so she could get back on him.

* * *

Her flight home was easy and uneventful.

She was getting much better at it. The most she had to do on the back of her dragon friend was keep one hand on his ears. All she had done now was sit cross-legged with the barrel in her lap as she examined it with such scrutiny.

Sitting cross-legged was easier on her thighs, even if they were already feeling better from getting used to it from riding him hours upon hours every day. She yawned a bit from the day's work, but was happy with her fork and bucket. She could now use it to wash her clothes or face or something without having to go down to the stream all the time.

And she had a  _fork_  now.

It wouldn't be her first choice, especially with how it was shaped, with two pointy thin ends instead of the four or so she was used to. This wouldn't be a  _for_ k, this would be a  _two_ rk.

As soon as they landed, she jumped off of Greenie's back with a practiced skill, and ran over to a waiting Bee by the mouth of their cave.

"Bee! Bee!" She called out like a child again, making the elder look up at her from where she was lounging. "Look what I found! It's a bucket!" She showed off her bucket so the blind dragon could give it a little sniff, "I can fill it up with water and. . ."

She'd not too sure the dragons could understand her when she talked, but they were more intelligent than dogs or cats. Mostly off of tone and body language, but they had the same problem-solving skills humans did. They could think and be reasoned with and have complex feelings.

"- - I could even fill it up with those blueberries I found instead of carrying them around in my pocket for them to get squished!"

She hadn't even started talking about the fork, or twork, when her guardian roughly got to her feet and pushed her into the cave like a momma.  _Time for bed_.

Raegan knew better than to try to argue or slip out from the dragon's side. She was blind, not deaf or without smell.


	10. Nothing on the beach

The next morning, after she had marked the nineteenth tally on her wall, she had to take a step back to just stare. Nineteen days.

She decided to take her newly found bucket down the stream to clean it up, and then she would go berry hunting. Washing it out in the water to make sure it was clear of anything weird, and then swishing it around a few times. She couldn't help but hum a bit as she worked. She was cheerful today, even went as far as to clean off her bare toes in the water.

Then she went through the trees, looking for any sign of the bush she had come to rely on the last few days (she'd found it on day fifteen, coming back and forth to nibble on its fruits). Blueberries weren't the best with fish, she had come to discover, but any new taste in her mouth beat it from time to time. She just wanted to cover maybe a full layer into the bucket before she headed home to get Greenie to fly her back to the beach.

Of course, it took much longer to fill the bucket up when she kept eating them as she got them.

_Then_  it felt like eating them made her even  _hungrier_.

What finally stopped her this time was a curious little teeny dragon when it landed softly on her shoulders. It wasn't enough to knock her down, but it was enough to surprise her a bit before she paused her work to address the little bugger.

"Wha- -Oh, hey there, little fella," She gave him a little pet under his nose where she knew they liked it. This one wasn't Wybie, but she recognized that it flew in the same flock. A friendly. When he gave her hand a grateful rub back, she followed his curious gaze as it landed in her bucket. "Oh, you want some?"

She pulled out three in her palm and held it out to him flat. He sniffed them, rolled them with his nose, turned his head so his eyeball was within an inch of them, then pulled back his lips as far as they would go and took the teeniest bite she had ever seen anything have.

The little dragon immediately pulled its head back and spit the berry out in a fiery ball. At once she rushed the bucket over to the stream nearby to dump it on the offending flames, losing all of her progress to a harvest. She gave the delinquent dragon a glaring squint.

The dragon just sat on its rump and stared blankly as its little eye shot out of its mouth to lick its own eyeball.

She sighed through her nose, hands going to her hips.

The dragon just flew off.

She decided she was bored with harvesting berries and went to go look for Greenie. She was going to get the tarp back to her cave one way or another. She doesn't know what she'd use it for, but she wanted it.

The sharp and deadly weapons could stay by the beach, she decided.

* * *

Hanging out by the beach, she had a stick in one hand while she examined the area she'd left yesterday. On the stick was her meal of the day. As you can expect, it was fish. She took little bites from it as she wandered around the beach, peering at the half-buried barrels and the scattered maces.

The she stepped over to the sail.

The only real way she could picture getting the tarp back to her camp, where she might be able to make some sort of waterproof shelter or hang over the mouth of the cave so it stayed warmer and isolated from the rest of the outside, was to somehow put it on one of her dragon friend's backs and have them fly it there. They were all much stronger than she was.

Or she could get them to carry it? It was far too much for her to put it on his back.

She let a little breath out of her nose when she went back over to her green, rock buddy. She couldn't climb a tree or something with her fish-on-a-stick in her hand, so she just put it in her mouth to hold. Maybe she could just shimmy her way onto his back with sheer will.

The dragon was watching as a fly buzzed around him while laying down in the sand. If she stood on her tippy toes she could reach up and grab onto his back, but it was a stretch.

It took a lot of wiggling and some adjusting, but she did finally put enough force in her arms to pull herself up onto his back without the use of literally just  _standing on something_. To say she was proud of herself was an understatement. She took a satasfied bite from her fish, before throwing the meatless remains down into the sand.

"Greenie," She gently tugged on his ears where she immediately reached to hold him, and turned him to the direction where the sail was folded. She didn't have any specially big plans for it, but she wanted it anyway. "C'mon, pick this up for me."

He followed her directions to the sail to the T, but just placed his right paw on the edge and looked back up at her.

"Pick it up," She encouraged, trying to mime what she wanted him to do.

It was very clear after a moment or so that he wouldn't get it, so she turned her attention to one of the nearby barrels. It was one of the few ones that she'd dug up enough to look at the inscription and odd pictures on them. It was all unreadable, but she could still try to open it.

Of course, all she could really get him to do now was fly over it and then land directly on top, trying to crush it open with their combined weight. He got more of a clue when she tried hopping on his back, hearing the occasional creaks under her while they squished the wood.

Maybe five minutes later, she had jumped from the green rock's back and had one of the smaller maces slung over her shoulders while she tried to carry it over to the container. It took a lot of effort to heave it up, much winding up needed to be done before she could finally smash it down on the wooden side and split it open like an egg.

Most of her shenanigans that day were unsuccessful, but at least she didn't get sprayed in the face when the whole thing smashed inward and pushed out a foul smelling brownish liquid she couldn't identify.

She wrinkled her nose and jumped back as quickly as she could when the contents leaked out and into the ocean.

Day nineteen didn't really get anything done, to be honest, but she was curious enough about the markings on the barrel to gather up the splintery pieces and carry them back to her cave to keep. She might not be able to read them, but they were interesting to look at.

They might have smelled really bad, and needed to be washed up, but she could keep them in the same place as her bucket and fork.

It might not take much to entertain an eight year old.


	11. The other side of the stream

On day twenty-two, Raegan finally went back to that tree where she first ran into Wybie. The little bugger had decided he wanted to play fetch that morning with her fork. Which was fine, but she  _did_ want it back eventually, and didn't care for the mischievous little lizard to lose it.

She decided to follow it to his favorite tree to get it back.

Greenie wasn't really needed, since the place was in walking distance and she didn't feel like riding him today.

It shouldn't really be a surprise to her that today was the day she got goaded into climbing the tree. She could see Wybie's orangish purple tail peeking out from between the lighter gray branches maybe ten feet in the air and glared at it.

" _Wy_ bie!" She whined his name, making him turn around to peer at her. She didn't see the fork in his mouth. "Give it back!"

He barked at her, chirping and rocking his head much like a bird before it threw something up. He was mocking her. She just knew it.

It barely took her ten seconds to decide to grab a hold of the nearest branch and pull herself up. They were all much thicker than her body was, so she just assumed she would be safe from making them crack under her weight. Even so, Wybie hung on branches much smaller than he was.

Even if he had wings to fall back on if they ended up snapping.

She moved through the branches by grabbing onto them and pulling herself to sit on them like a horse, then she would turn on her butt and sit like they were a swing. It didn't take a lot of effort and was pretty fun to do, so it took her near no time at all to climb up to the branch she had seen Wybie wiggling on.

He had climbed up higher, and wiggled his butt as he chirped.

She tried to mimic the sounds back at him, as sarcastic as possible, but he didn't seem too deterred.

That was how she got to spending the day climbing around in the tree, following the teeny dragon as they played cat and mouse. She didn't have a real plan for what she'd do when she caught him, but ended up enjoying herself all the same.

She smiled as she journeyed around, suddenly not so alone or worried about living on the island. Even if the feeling was temporary, it was still there, genuine, and made her happy and clear for a few hours that day. She memorized the way the branches felt and how they flowed in the large tree, and sent less time looking at where she was grabbing.

She moved faster and more agilely by the time the afternoon was over, and she felt a little whiny that it was Old Bee that came thundering through the forest to get her down. The dragon wasn't stomping or angry, just noisy enough that there was no chance of Raegan ignoring her.

One look at her guardian's face and she knew that it was time to go back to the cave. She hadn't even noticed that the sky was beginning to darken. She jumped a good five feet from the tree, higher than she was tall, fully prepared to land in the dirt.

The elder was kind enough to surge forward and catch her adopted daughter (even if she hadn't needed a rescue), carrying her on her enormous back, where the human girl settled into a comfortable lounge. She crossed her legs and pet her cave-mate on her back, almost like a massage as she was carried back home for bed.

Raegan began to feel more and more normal going out into the trees alone, leaving Greenie behind more often, and spending her days in the trees to climb them and mess with the different leaves and flowers and teeny dragons she found there. By day twenty-six, the only times she had spent with her little pack of rock-puppies was when she ate her fish they caught.

She was getting more used to climbing, picking the skill up rather quickly as she got used to jumping from one to he other, until she decided that it was time to explore farther into the forests beyond the stream. For the first time in a while, she scurried over to her green friend with the intentions of flying around.

Of course, it just so happened that  _this time_ , she didn't get to do as she wanted because he had already left to go fish for her. Like clockwork. It was her own fault for not remembering. She gave herself a light slap on the forehead.

This is why she went off into the woods by herself, following along the trails she'd memorized, climbing one of the large trees and using its overhanging branches to cross the cold water without getting wet. She felt like a survival expert. Even if the only reason she hadn't starved already was because she'd befriended some motherly and caring dragons.

She wandered through the other side of the island carefully, looking around at the trees and listening for the sounds behind her as she got farther and farther from the running water. She even spent her time climbing some rather unique looking branches, moving from one tree to the other without touching the ground.

It really looked like they were  _made_  for it.

This innocent and naive glee she felt playing around in unfamiliar territory only lasted until she began seeing different signs of other dragons.

She spotted some tracks in the dirt, far larger than her own bare feet, that matched none of the dragons she had seen so far. Her innocent curiosity, lack of any real fear for a while, her overall happiness, that's what lead her to follow them so absent minded.

It might be what saved her from immediately being gobbled up by the large dragon as it peered down at her from between trees.

She squeaked a little when she stubbed her toe on a rogue root that came up too high, but the normal cold numbing she felt in her feet and legs kept most of the pain from staying with her. She just pulled the throbbing foot up and holding it for a second as she examined the damage.

Nothing permanent. She was fine.

She had just spotted a new blueberry bush from the corner of her eye when she felt the oven-like breath breeze down the back of her neck and the sound of a heavy exhale behind her. She wobble a little, losing balance on her one foot, and chose to slowly set it down. Whatever was behind her hadn't eaten her yet.

It seemed like the dragons seeing her first was now a running theme. Perhaps she was doing it wrong?

Well, she wasn't dead yet. So it can't matter too much.

Her heart still thumped loud in her chest.

She kept her eyes at a careful level when she turned around. She knew from her mom that unfamiliar dogs took it as a challenge to look them in the eye, and she knew from her own experience that seeming meek and small worked well for her not being a threat. She kept her hands in clear view and turned 180 degrees as steady as she could.

She was face to face with the long snout of a dragon at least thrice as tall as her.

Raegan thought that it was built a little like a T-Rex. It had teeny little arms with claws as long as her fingers and as sharp as knives. It had huge legs of lean muscle that were as thick as four of her. From its height and the position the two of them were in, Raegon could easily identify the dragon as a girl. She'd not sure how such a large beast could have remained undetected for so long, but Raegan wasn't too good at keeping up with her surroundings.

The dragon was purple, with a head about three and some feet long. Her underbelly was a shade lighter, and her eyes were a bright and pale yellow, as Raegan had come so familiar with. She was happy she found this dragon. This one didn't growl or bare her teeth or sniff her over for fish. The big purple just curled her head around to look at her as curious as can be.

She did not seem worried about Raegan reaching over to pet her, though the young girl moved as still as she could.

"Hello, there," Raegan's voice was steady as she placed a hand under the chin of the new dragon. "You're a beautiful girl, aren't ya?"

The new dragon's long neck almost wrapped around Raegan as she curled her head deeper into the hand. Her pale yellow eyes rolled back slightly and a rough purr vibrated its way through her throat, where Raegan could feel it.

"Yes, you are! Yes, you are!" The eight year old used both of her hands to cup the face of her new neighbor, careful to avoid the poking teeth out of the lower jaw.

Raegan could only find it in herself to pause slightly as she felt a small shiver pass through the dragon's scales; but she just couldn't help but pull her hands back when she saw the sudden flash of yellow across the body in front of her. The purple hue of the breathtaking dragon changed to a happy yellow as she shook out her head like a dog shaking water droplets from their ears. They made eye-contact.

When she felt the human in front of her stop, the now-yellow dragon pulled her head up to her full height, suddenly waving off the flare on the back of her head like a fan. In the back of her mind, Raegan was a little glad she hadn't befriended this dragon first because she would never be able to see over the back of her head if she decided to ride her. Farther examination lead her to believe she might have been able to sit right where the dragon's neck connected to her body, like on her shoulders and back, but there would be no way to tell unless she actually  _rode_  her.

It would be pretty rude of her to try only a few minutes after they met, so she pushed this thought away.

"Someone as pretty as you needs a pretty name," She decided, holding out her arms to pat on the new dragon's wings as they stretched out beside her, mesmerized by the change of color she'd seen. "I'm gonna call you Lucy!"


	12. Humans

Raegan counted day thirty on the island as a full month, even though she knew that February had twenty-eight days. She counted and recounted the tallies several times before she finally went about her morning.

She felt like her insides were melting away her feelings. Although she might have had some happy and amazing adventures here, she never had the pleasure of sleeping in a soft bed or wrapping herself in a dry blanket, taking a hot bath with sweet soaps, or sitting on the couch with her mother.

She had been alone for a month now.

Most of her days now were just going through the motions, exploring beyond the stream. She would occasionally run into Lucy, even saw her out in the trees with two others of her kind, but for the most part, she was left alone. It was getting kind of boring as she lost interest in flying with Greenie. She still loved him and the other three rock-puppies, but she missed home and wanted to be by herself when she climbed her trees. Flying wouldn't help her get home when she didn't know which direction to fly in.

Greenie was smart. He had thoughts and feelings, and she could tell he missed flying with her; but she wanted more human interaction. She wanted to  _talk_  to someone. So she spent most of her time thinking about past conversations she'd had.

What was the last thing she'd said to her mother before she left that last day of school? She can't remember if she had said goodbye or not. When was the last time she'd told her mother that she loved her. Or her brother? Did he even miss her?

She spent most of the time on autopilot, climbing around, wandering. Aimlessly and too thoughtless to actually be considered bored. Empty inside. She hadn't yet gone to the beach on the other side of the stream yet, but she was getting more familiar with the forest. She never ran into any other new dragons on her little expeditions, but she did get pulled out of it later that afternoon.

She was sitting in a tree, straddling a branch perhaps fifteen feet in the air. It was only a little bit thinner around than she was but never bent under her weight to make her worried about it snapping. She was just sat with a rock in her hand drawing out all the things she could think of.

Her legs were a little tired, so she was spending the time resting them while she carved into the bark.

She was not an artist. That was her brother. He could draw peoples' faces well enough that a camera could recognize it as a person, outline a bright circle and focus in on them. He didn't draw any stick people and didn't like the little animal cartoons Raegan tried to show off to him. His art was much more fridge-worthy than hers, but he never made it a point to show off his sketchbooks to their mother to have it put up somewhere.

Raegan didn't think she could ever be as good as him, so she just doodled as she felt like it. She carved out little marks like flowers and smiley faces and a little house. She was using a rather sharp rock she'd found, marking into the wood a little square with a triangle on top of it. She made little windows and a squiggly path to what had to be the a road with a stick person riding a bicycle. None of it looked as good as it had in her head, the only thing she was really proud of was the very generic flower by the side and the sun with a happy smile in the corner.

She was so engrossed in signing her name by the bottom, she almost didn't hear the terrified roar out in the distance.

She froze in her work. If she had been a dog, her ears would have perked up and angled to the left, where she knew the sound to be coming. It was deep into the forest, toward the beach she'd never seen with many, many trees between her and it.

She strained to listen again, not even bothering to drop her hand or turn her head farther.

A long eight seconds later, she heard it again. This time it was louder.

She didn't think the dragon that made it (because it had to be a dragon), was getting closer. She just thought it was getting louder and more agitated. A longer screech reached her ears and she almost jerked as her heart started pumping harder. Not agitated. Scared?

It sounded scared. Or hurt.

What on Earth could a dragon have to be scared of?

It hurt her ears to listen to the distressed calls the dragon in the distance made (not because it was loud, but the emotion felt behind it), but she was almost paralyzed in her place fifteen feet in the air. It took her several seconds to realize she was shaking and had turned to face the noise head on.

She nearly fell out of the tree when she heard a different dragon call back, making her glance down to spot one of Lucy's pack-mates. They were several paces away, looking the same direction she had been. Their scales had changed from the usual yellow she saw to a more orangey color. Their claws were ticking in their discomfort.

Even the dragons weren't liking this.

It must have taken her ten minuted to finally move back down to the solid ground, seeking the comfort of another creature. Lucy's friend paid her nearly no mind as he stared intently into the trees, looking stuck between going after the distressed dragon and staying put. His shoulders curled down, making himself smaller. He was frightened as well. Knew what it was causing this.

It took no time at all for the two to pull together. Raegan pulled into his side while he leaned his head down to nuzzle against her. A particularly loud wail made the dragon beside her respond with a whine. He looked down at her, and if she thought dragons could cry, this one was surely going to.

Her legs made the decision before her brain as she made her way to head toward the creature.

She winced and tripped as the sudden loudness and echoes of the roars became more clear and defined. She was amazed by the lungs on them, shivering at the fear filling her, and every time she passed another set of trees in her way she thought,  _here they are, they have to be right around this band here_. But they just kept getting louder and louder and she kept traveling farther and farther. She felt her ears would soon burst.

She was beginning to think she would never find them when the sight of the drastically changing appearance of a red and brown dragon thrashed in front of her.

She at once recognized it as the same species as Lucy, but it was hard to tell as they jerked back and forth on the ground. Their scales were changing from a deep red to an uncomfortable shade of brown/gray. She really couldn't hear anything aside from its screams as she took in what had trapped the poor creature.

She recognized them as humans a split second later, the sight suddenly filling her with adrenaline. She would have been excited, if it hadn't been for the intimidating size of the men and the view she had of them raising weapons at the trapped dragon. The normally happy and serene dragon was curled on the ground and trapped with what looked like an extra,  _extra_  large bear trap that had pinned its wings in a bloody mess.

The only reason she saw the blood was when the scales changed to their scared brown color periodically.

Raegan's tight throat couldn't take a breath in.

She was shocked as she watched four enormous men launch themselves onto the defenseless dragon's tail and legs to keep it in place. Now that she was closer and watching them, she could tune her ears to listen as they shouted to each other in a different language. Rough R's, harsh H's. Scary sounding.

She couldn't move from between the bushes several paces away when she finally saw one of the men put an end to the dragon's helpless screams. Raegan let out a broken sound from her throat, cut between a sob and a gasp for the air she hadn't been taking in.

Her crying wasn't heard over the cheers and shouts of the men as they saw the dragon finally lay still. The shaking leaves of the bushes as she turned tail and fled weren't spotted. The stumps and rocks digging into her feet as she sprinted across the forest and toward her safe cave weren't felt.

She didn't feel it in her burning lungs as she ran for the seventeen minutes it took to cross the entire island.

It was all she could do to slow the slightest bit when she ran through the icy stream to make sure she didn't slip and then headed for her cave.

She choked out the name of her adopted mother through the waterworks of her eyes and slop from her running nose. She might have curled up in the side of Bee's belly while the elderly beast coo'd at her, but she couldn't help but shake and replay the scene she'd just witnessed over and over in her mind. It was the most brutal thing she could imagine, making her stomach feel sick, and her arms and legs feel as though they were being overtaken by a swarm of bugs. Was it Lucy? Did they kill Lucy? Were they going to kill her other friends?

The twins? Gabby and Bella? Wybie? Ms. Purple?

Greenie?

_Bee_?

She curled up in the smallest ball possible on the cold floor of their cave, with her blind guardian curling up around her to keep her warm and safe as she always did.


	13. Sneaking

It took her three days to summon the courage to go back.

The last few days she had remained within the confines of her little camp, her cave and the rock puppies' home. She didn't move much and constantly kept her fork in her grip, like it was a weapon she might be able to use to defend herself against a fully grown man with a sword. Finally going back into the trees took  _effort_.

Her ears strained to listen to every sound. Her tired hazel eyes swerved around to each shaking bush or abnormal leaf. It took no time at all for her to decide to pull herself up the nearest tree and travel off of the ground. She was glad she left Greenie behind. He would get caught way too easily. This much she knew. And it was even worse now that she had the consequences of being caught flashing behind her eyelids every time she blinked.

She had never wanted to go back across the stream, but not knowing if the men she saw were still on the island was a worse thought. She had never seen any settlements or buildings or anything on  _her_  side of the island, but she never looked too closely on the far end. She  _had_  to know.

Why did they kill such an innocent and intelligent creature? What were they going to do? Were they from here or just passing through on a ship like she'd seen on the beach?

She crawled along the branches that were too thin to walk across upright, jumping between them, grabbing with her small hands as nimbly as she always had. She tried to make the least sound possible, now that she was actually listening and not climbing for sport. She heard the wind as it shifted through the trees and the sounds of insects. Normal sounds of a forest that only seemed empty on the surface.

Raegan had to pace herself as she traveled. She didn't want to go too far too soon and end up getting spotted before she could listen for them. The men probably didn't know she was there. They might just be hunting dragons or something.

She had to be careful.

If anything went wrong, she could probably herd her little pack into the air and fly somewhere else. Hopefully she could find a  _civilized_  civilization. Maybe someone who spoke English and could help her get in touch with her mom and eventually head home.

She inched through the forest by the trees and kept as silent as possible.

Raegan disciplined herself more than she ever had, angry with the unfamiliar men for killing a dragon she  _knew_ was innocent and harmless. She couldn't help but run the same thought in her mind. Was that  _Lucy_? And, if it had been, would that be better or worse than any other dragon being gutted? Her eyes teared up, hurriedly wiped off on the back of her hands, suddenly making them colder. She didn't get a good look with all the thrashing and blood and changing of the scales. And she hadn't wanted to look after the dragon's body went so  _deathly_  still.

It burned behind her eyelids.

The only real way to know would be to run into Lucy again or find out what they did with the body.

Her stomach was aching and her legs were a little sore from the way she was constantly perched on branches by the time she found anything. She approached the site she witnessed three days ago, looking around as much as she could from blocked behind leaves. It looked about empty, all that was left was the slightly rusty, old and bloody trap that had been reset.

The dead dragon was gone. The men had left.

She relaxed a little that she didn't hear any of the shouts or calls of the foreign language, or any of their plundering feet stomping through the forests. She was might not have been the best at surviving in the wild by herself, but she was a lot quieter than them.

Being back did not help.

She heard the same sounds over and over in her head, disgust at the lingo that was now associated to the massacre. Once she was sure for herself that the coast was clear, she looked down the tree she was sat in. Slow as a snail, she let herself hang by her hands curled over the bark, then crawled down to a lower branch where she did it again. Moving a certain circular motion around the tree as she descended to the floor.

She knelt down low beside the trunk as she checked around the little clearing. Her ears were strained, she held her breath. Nothing. She slowly moved forward a bit, holding her arm out behind her to hold onto the tree for as long as possible, like it could protect her.

She stared at the trap for thirty seconds before she took a step closer.

Raegan gave it a wide birth, walking around to look at it from all angles. It was as tall as she was, probably twice as long. She couldn't imagine how a dragon had been caught inside unless the men had pushed it in there. The thing was so obvious and not even trying to camouflage. She looked around the small area in the woods, like any of the men might have stayed behind to watch for any other dragons caught. Or really for anything that might catch her interest.

She was already uncomfortable. She was almost on the complete other side of the island as her guardian. Bee would hold no chance against the ruthless hunters she'd seen. She was old and blind and slept all day, every day. Raegan wanted to protect her by figuring out where the people had gone, maybe get all her dragon friends to leave to go somewhere else where they'd be safe.

Her legs were beginning to shake when she thought about it more. She didn't want to be out here anymore. It was too quiet for her.

She chose to forget the trees and settled for walking straight back to her home, the easy way that she knew was clear of men. Her fingers and feet were a little sore from her treks, even if she had been practicing. They were a little red already from what she'd put them through, a bit like blisters.

There was no one between here and her cave, she was alone out here. Her feet were so dirty that day that they looked black in some places from the layers of mud that had just kept building up and drying over and over again, almost building up like a real shoe and protecting her from anything else she could step on. She kept an eye out through trees while she pushed her burning legs to keep going. The positions she'd been in in the trees might have been good to stay out of sight and move easily, but she wasn't quite used to doing them for as long as she was. She was tired, a little sleepy. Exhausted.

She was just on the verge of regretting her plan in the first place when she was abruptly swooped up into the air, any and all relaxation from her isolation left her in a sudden and fearful scream. Any chance of getting away from this without any negative feelings went out the window when she realized that she had been caught up in some kind of net.

She wanted to gouge her own eyes out.  _Of course they had set more traps_!  _Idiot_!  _Stupid_!  _Stupid_! _Stupid_!

This one was a bit like you might see in a cartoon. A net spread out over the ground and covered in leaves or something to camouflage it. As soon as something (or someone) stepped in it, they were swooped up in the air and held there until someone came to release them. It would only be a matter of time.

She was caught and didn't know how to get out.

It was hard enough to maneuver inside of the ropes, she would never be able to rip or untie them. They were meant to hold a  _dragon_.

Her fingers found their way around the thick knots keeping her inside. They were heavy enough to keep her inside for a long time. Her measly fork would take hours to get her out and who knows how long she had. She felt the rope rub against her bare leg harshly when she tried to roll over a bit in her cage. She got to work immediately, jabbing herself in her fingers a few times to draw blood in her haste to break the knots.

She gave a shout in frustration when she accidentally stabbed herself again, instinctively jerking her hands back and dropping the fork through the holes in her net and onto the forest floor far below. Her hopeless and fearful sob escaped her throat unnoticed.

Resorting to pulling at the ropes with her hands, she glared daggers at them when she noticed how tightly they were woven and the sleek feel they had about them. She could only guess that they were meant to hold a  _dragon's_  strength and be  _fire_  resistant. There was no way she could break out.

She slumped at the bottom of the net, catching her breath for a few seconds before she held it again in paralyzing horror. Were they closing in? She waited until her lungs burned, but she couldn't hear anything that might give away a bunch of rowdy men with maces and swords and a thirst for dragon blood.

Over five minutes passed. She breathed deeply, trying to calm down and keep herself from hyperventilating.

It was then she decided to try something else. She moved along to the top of the net, which was no easy task, and reached her fingers up to the metal contraption that kept the whole thing together. She fiddled around with it with one hand while she tried to find some sort of release. There  _had_  to be one. She  _had_  to find it.

She couldn't help but punch it in frustration when all she found was some smooth outer shell.

She was stuck.


	14. Sneaking didn't work

Raegan was sat with her legs crossed. Or as much as she could while stuck in a net.

Her legs kept accidentally poking through the bottom of it, the little squares there. It was meant to hold a several thousand pounds beast, and she was a little kid, sixty pounds soaking wet. It frustrated her to no end as she kept having to pull herself up. The holes were nowhere near big enough to fit all the way through, but it made her very uncomfortable.

Of course, getting frustrated over something small like this just made her want to break down even more. She couldn't help herself as she curled up as tightly as she could, covering her face and crying. She didn't think to keep so quiet about it.

When she was done, her eyes were puffy and her cheeks were sore from rubbing them. Her nose was so stoppy, she couldn't breath through it; and her hands were covered in the salty water of her face, which only made her get colder as a breeze came through.  _Miserable_. She shook.

She was too scared of someone bad hearing her to call out to her dragons for help.

Raegan was never the best at judging time, but however long she spent there was enough to made her drowsy and nod off a few times. She hadn't even realized what had happened when the crunching of leaves in the dirt reached her ears. She was leaning her head against one of the little nodes in the ropes, eyes closed and face relaxed.

She heard it. She did. She just forgot where she was. In her mind, she was in her cave with Bee, snuggling and warm against her belly. Any sounds around her were just background noise.

She continued this illusion up until the harsh language reached her ears. The sharp R's, long H's, overused N's. She flinched so much, her entire net swayed a good few feet back and forth. She grabbed a hold onto the ropes like she was bracing herself against it, and her head shot up directly to the owner of the sound.

He was standing a few meters away, looking a little annoyed at her. His sword wasn't in his hand, but he was still walking over to her menacingly.

Or not to her. She stared at him as still as could be when he said something else to her.

She was paralyzed.

The only time she moved was to turn her head around like an owl as he moved past the hanging net to a rope that was latched around a nearby tree. The thing holding her up. She didn't have time to react when the man took out his sword and cut it clean through, dropping her down again.

She screamed when she fell back to the ground and groaned when the pain shot up through her butt. She landed on one of the knots keeping the ropes together, which made it all the worse when it pushed into her side.

She was dazed for a second, but by the time she tried to scramble over to the hole in the net, the foreign man had pulled back the trap and grabbed a hold of her arm. She was on her bare feet in a second, pulling back away from him uselessly.

He said something else and his face scrunched up a bit. He was angry with her. Raegan winced at the grip he had on her upper left arm, sure it would bruise.

"Let  _go_! Let go of me!"

His grip might have loosened just the slightest, but he just furrowed his eyebrows at her. When the man spoke up again, the sounds were just as unpleasant to her ears, but the tone wasn't as furious. She couldn't reply to whatever he said, so she just kept tugging.

He kind a looked her up and down a moment; it didn't look like any of her effort was making a difference to him. He took in her dirty, almost black, feet, the stains and faded color of her white shirt the like of which he had never seen before. Her sparse clothing. It wasn't inappropriate, exactly, or revealing in any way, but he couldn't see how she kept herself warm during the nights. Even now, her arm was freezing in his hand.

He was more confused now than angry that a perfectly good trap was wasted by a little kid.

The dirt covering her face and staining her hair lead him to believe she was some sort of wild child. Maybe the kind that lived with dragons. He'd heard stories of savages like them. He'd heard they could  _talk_  to dragons, control their minds, and ride them into battle. What nonsense.

But this little girl was no older than ten and somehow survived on the island full of them. An island he knew for a  _fact_  didn't have a village or town based around.

She flinched from him when he spoke again, her fingers trying to dig under his hand around her arm so that she could be free.

And that was when he was trying to be gentle, or at least not hurt her. All she saw was an incredible harshness. One of the violent killers she witnessed only a few days ago.

After a few seconds, they both stilled and stared. Each uncertain about the other.

She looked at his bearded face. It wasn't often she saw beards as big as his. And she had never seen one as well braided as his was. His brown hair was a big fluff and looked like it had never seen a razor. His metal helmet reminded her of vikings, with two horns sticking off each end and curving upwards into a thin point. His clothing was oddly made, dark colors. Some rough material she'd never seen before.

He wasn't particularly tall, but his biceps seemed as big as her  _head_ , so she was terrified. He was one of the men who killed the  _dragon_! If he managed to take a dragon down, what could he do to her?

His big head turned around the small clearing to take a good look around, completely ignoring the trap altogether, before he began to half-drag, half-lead Raegan out towards the beach.

* * *

Raegan didn't like it. She didn't like this one bit.

Her feet had been making two little comical lines in the dirt as she was dragged through the forest. Her feet trying to make some resistance as she tried not to move from her place (not that he noticed). He wasn't pulling so hard that her arm was being yanked from the socket, but it was by no means  _considerate_. He barely glanced at her when she finally tripped over a root and stumbled, falling head-first towards the ground. The only thing that stopped her from hitting the dirt was the hand on her arm that never once moved.

Her shouting went unnoticed.

"Let me go! Let me go! Let go of me! Stop!  _Please_!"

He jerked his arm forward a little bit as they both stepped through the forest. She cut off her protests, so she just tried to keep up with his longer strides, shaking on her feet.

She felt even more worried when she finally saw a break in the trees, the rare bit of sunlight falling down on the sand just beyond. He was taking her to the beach, much farther than she wanted to go!

She hated the way his voice suddenly called out, loud and deep with incomprehensible phonemes. He couldn't naturally sound like that. Was he faking his voice? The second the two of them moved through the trees, every head turned to look at them.

There were a lot more men on the beach than she had seen take down the dragon. Her best guess was twenty on the sand as many of them dropped what they were doing and headed towards the pair.

Her small fingers tried once again to peel off her captor's hand from her upper arm so she could make her escape, but he looked down at her sharply and shook her just a bit.

She froze, feeling on the verge of tears once again. She barely breathed to remain as still as possible.

She didn't like the sudden noise around them. Raegan was used to hearing the roars of her dragon friends now. Suddenly being around eight or so larger than average guys who all seemed to talk louder and deeper than normal made her even more uncomfortable than she was. She didn't like the look of them; but was happy that most of the people on the beach just turned around to what they were doing, only briefly sparing her a glance.

Some paused a few feet away just when the man beside her started to talk again. She couldn't imagine how he was making some of the sounds with his mouth, sudden K's, awkward S's.

The men around him seemed to interrupt quite a few times while one or two of them just stared at her confused. The man with the brown beard pointed to her a few times as he talked with them.

She looked around nervously at the line along the beach, some men beyond who were stopping and staring. A few barrels off in the distance remarkably similar to the ones she'd found on the beach. She could even see something that resembled a little boat you could row with paddles. She'd never seen one quite like it before. Raegan shook again when another cold breeze moved through.

It took her several long seconds to realize that they had mostly quieted down, and all of them were looking at her. Her body stiffened up more as she looked between them, her one free arm moved up to her chest as she involuntarily made herself smaller.

She squeaked a bit when she was shaken again by brown-beard. It hadn't hurt, but it was enough.

"What?" Her voice went up slightly.

He made an exasperated face before looking down at her impatiently and waving his hand like,  _continue_. He spoke again, slower, but no more recognizable than his first words to her.

"I don't know what you want," Her own mouth was quiet as her wide eyes looked round the crowd.

They landed on a slightly smaller man as he walked up the group. He had his head high in the air, something that could show to even a little kid like her that he was a man of authority. He had blond hair and had a tiny beard in comparison to the others, but they all looked over to him when he pushed his way to the front.

He sort of squinted at her before talking again with brown-beard.

The blond made some motion with his hands and the next thing she knew, the hand holding her was gone. Raegan was free.

She had barely noticed how the huge hand on her arm was much, much warmer than she was; it even caused the slightest bit of sweat to pick up around the area. She wasn't sure if it was her's or the man holding her, but she didn't really care. The second she realized she was free, she turned tail and ran back into he trees as fast as her small legs could take her.


	15. Trees and bread

She didn't hear any noises behind her where the men were gathered, but she wasn't exactly listening for it.

Her first instinct was to run as far away as fast as she could, forget about knowing exactly where they were. Raegan's not too sure what she expected when she came over here looking for them. She had planned on just watching them, maybe figure out who they were exactly. It was very likely that they'd been there longer than her, she just wanted to come up with more information so she could know what to do.

But information is hard to gather when your plan goes sideways and you end up fleeing through the woods. Once her legs couldn't take anymore, and she had to stop; leaned up against one of the tree trunks to hold her up. She panted, her heart was racing and her legs were burning from all the activity and no food. That reminded her; in all the excitement, she'd lost her fork.

After she'd dropped it when she was in the net, there's no hope of her finding it again. Not that she really cared to, anyway.

She didn't think much to listen in to the people following her. She was still relieved about getting away, but she thought it would be best if she traveled through the trees again. Once she was sure she was rested enough to make it, she turned and climbed the nearest tree. The only sound now was the little patter of her hands and feet as she gripped the branches in crucial places, walking across to other trunks.

Her sudden disappearance from the forest floor might have confused the men trying to follow her, essentially making them believe that she was a  _lot_  smarter than she looked (and knew they were following her in the first place), but the blond man at the head of them picked up her trail again only a few moments later when he saw the light shaking of the top leaves as she headed back to her side of the island.

Raegan was followed back to the stream cutting the island in halves, where she nimbly dropped down to the floor so she could take a few gulps from the icy water. She was already freezing, but she couldn't do much think hard about how hungry and thirsty she was. She planned on warming herself up again when she got back to her home. She was almost there now.

She just wanted to see her Bee.

A motherly comfort,  _please_.

The blond man hidden in the trees behind her just watched. His plan had been to let her go and see where she would lead them. He had heard about  _dragon_ -people before. He, like his captain's crew, had heard that some could tame dragons and  _ride_  them. He very much liked the idea of being able to use a dragon to fight his battles. He just needed to make sure before he puts some little girl in front of a Monstrous Nightmare that she wouldn't just get killed immediately. Especially when they didn't speak the same language.

His mind wandered a bit as he and the two men beside him watched her stand back up. All he would really need to do is convince his captain.

Raegan stood up by the stream, a little calmer now that she was free again. She looked down at the water while she wiped her hands off on her skirt, before turning around to find her favorite tree to use to cross over. She froze in her place when she thought she saw something move.

The bushes rustled just the slightest.

She held her breath.

Nothing moved.

She looked up and down the messy treeline, before being filled so suddenly with the unquestionable desire to _go home_. To her cave.

She ran quickly over to a tree and scaled it with such precision the men below were a little shocked. What a  _wild_  child! One of the only things she felt come so naturally to her in the month she'd been on the island was scaling things, barefoot and gloveless. She ran down one of the thicker branches that spread out the direction she needed to go and used it as a sort of trampoline when she bounced just the slightest before jumping to another branch on the other side. The clear, fresh water ran harmlessly under her by a good ten feet.

The new branch was crawled along as she scurried along to the base, where she dropped. The blond watched as she disappeared again.

The three grown men would have less luck crossing the water without getting cold and wet. They groaned internally.

* * *

The first thing Raegan did when she approached her camp was head for her cave to look for her Bee.

Her heart nearly broke when she saw the empty lair. There were tears in her eyes, but she didn't waste time turning around and heading for the grounds the rock-dragons played in.

It's not unheard of for Bee to leave the den, probably to go look for her favorite rocks to snack on. Occasionally she would go out searching for Raegan, like any good parent checking up on their child. The little girl would just have to wait for her to come home. Hopefully the blind elder wouldn't run into the men she found.

She left the cave and jogged along to find her friends. The twins were several meters away, play wrestling; Ms. Purple was sunning herself as she lay spread out on her back with her belly exposed; and Greenie was eagerly flapping his wings when he spotted her coming to see them. His tongue flopped from his mouth, his rocky tail shook a bit in his happiness.

"Hey, boy," She greeted him, looking over his shoulder where she spotted a small pile of fish. Her belly growled. She  _knew_  she missed the drop off.  _Starved_!

It only takes a second to find her favorite cooking stick and pick up one of the fish. She feels a lot better when she sits down beside him, leaning against some of the boulders lounging around.

"Light it up for me?" She motioned to the fish as she put it on her server, and the green dragon rumbled a bit as he spat out a small pile of lava a little ways in front of them. "Thanks," She says this quietly, brushing her side against him as she holds her meal over the heat to cook it.

Raegan takes a deep breath through her nose. It calms her a little bit.

Her blood pumping and rapid heartbeat slowly eased into a more natural feeling.

The blond man and his companions were only maybe two or three minutes behind her, so it took them no time at all to sneak through the foliage and peek at her from the cover of the green bushes and trees. The two sluggish brutes with him were shocked at the sight of the small child petting and laying around with several destructive dragons. Their leader was surprised but he was far more interested than them.

Their mumbles couldn't be heard where she sat. She was too busy cooking and trying to ease her distraught stomach. Both hunger and fear had rifled it up.

She only looked up when  _he_  walked out from the cover.

It was instinctive for her to jerk her legs back and scramble to stand up. She dropped her meal in her haste, turning it to a crisp in the lava, and hid behind the rough hide of the rock dragon. Greenie and Ms. purple had stood up as well, but their crouches were aggressive and snarling. They growled at the man in unison. He looked alone and didn't have his weapon drawn.

Max and Sam were oblivious teenagers, too far out of earshot to notice anything significant had changed.

Raegan peeked out from behind the bright wing of her close friend, like she was naive enough to believe he couldn't see her if she was slow and sneaky enough.

He was one of the men on the beach. Followed her home. He was lowered down slightly as he focused on the dragon guarding her, but he didn't turn away from the purple one completely. It might not have been very significant to her, but he fought his every instinct not to grab his sword to get ready to attack. His hands twitched as he thought about it.

Luckily, he decided she was worth calming down, now that he could see her dirty dark hair poking up from behind the dragon. His face was remarkably emotionless.

Then he spoke.

Raegan moved back, at first; but she did look back at him when she couldn't stand not watching. He didn't react much when Greenie bared his teeth, but looked up when Ms. Purple snarled.

She couldn't understand him, but he didn't seem angry or dangerous.

The three watched him, ever so slowly, as he reached down to a small bag hanging by his waist. Raegan's body tensed up and her dragons growled more fiercely.

The blond wasn't deterred, he just slowly opened the flap and pulled out what looked like. . .  _bread_?

Raegan perked up. Her mouth watered and her stomach rumbled. She had dropped her fish. Was he offering her food?

What she would give to eat something other than seafood!

She took the smallest step possible out from behind her green guardian to get a better look. If anything, the rock beast in front of her lowered himself even farther to the ground as he and the grumpy Ms. Purple began to get ready to strike. They didn't like the hand stretched toward them.

Raegan was quick to shout at them when she heard the breath intakes and the flash of fear from the stranger, "Stop! No!"

She gave Greenie a long pet on his side, he glanced at her. His mouth closed with a clenched jaw, however his sharp eyes were not slacking. Ms. Purple stalked over to the human, not looking the least bit pleased.

"Shh, it's okay," She tried to calm them. They didn't, but they also showed no more signs of attacking.

The man didn't give much of a reaction, just he relaxed the slightest bit. His hand was patiently holding out the food.

She takes another step forward, still holding by Greenie's side. Then she took another, almost walking sideways at him. A nervous instinct to make herself a smaller target in case he decided to strike.

She was five feet away when she raised her hand up a bit like she was going to take the grain from him. Her stomach voiced its approval which made her a little red in the face. But she wanted it. More than nearly anything else at the moment.

She was uncertain as she looked at the meal he offered. Was it a peace offering? The man who caught her wasn't here. In fact, this man was alone;  _and_  the one who got her released! She began to trust him a bit.

She was two feet away now, their arms filling most of the space between them. She hesitated for a second, looking into his face to make sure this was okay. Again, he didn't react. He was just staring at her, waiting to see what she'd do.

It made her feel stupid, and she didn't like it.

Raegan took the bread from him.


	16. Dead bread

She couldn't help the large bite she took out of it. She didn't care that the taste and texture were terrible, but it was something  _new_. She was tired of fish.

Her eyes closed when she chewed it, before she looked back up at the man. She was grateful. Fully prepared to forgive them for what they had done if they were willing to try and communicate with her. They must have had a reason to. . .  _kill_  that dragon. If they could come to an understanding that it was  _not okay_  to kill dragons, then maybe Raegan could communicate with them and go home.

Her momma taught her better manners, she gave him a "Thank you" between bites.

She even gave the sign for it. One of the few things in ASL she knew. Her flat hand faced her chest, the tips of her fingers at her chin, before she swiped it downward towards the man.

She wasn't sure if he knew what she was saying, but she thought it might have helped a little bit.

The bread was gone sooner rather than later, and she wiped her hands on her skirt while she felt the man's eyes on her. She took a step back, shuffling her hands a bit as she contemplated what to do next. They couldn't exactly talk, could they? How would this work?

You can't communicate with someone in a different language without showing some emotion. This man showed none.

She stared at the ground, thinking.

She heard Greenie and Ms. Purple roar and jump forward from behind her before she felt the man grab her. Her eyes widened, body jerked forward towards him. She was held tightly against his front, her back to his chest, like a tiny shield while he stared down the dragons in front of him. Raegan's legs kicked in front of her but she couldn't get free from him.

Her heart sped up when she saw the sudden light pulling from the back of Greenie's throat. The rock dragon had taken a deep breath and was now preparing to strike at the man keeping her captive. Ms. Purple wasn't that far behind.

She stiffened even more than she already was, stumbling over her own words as she called out to them.

"Wait! No!" She tried to get out of the way of their fire but the man wasn't letting her move. "Stop!"

They heard her.

She panted when she saw them slowly close their mouths. The two didn't look pleased.

The man who gave her bread shifted around behind her. When she looked up she could see him looking around to the left and right. What was he going to do?

She felt several seconds behind the present when she saw the spear launch from her right. It sailed through the air, and she watched it. Her mind blank.

She followed it with her eyes until she saw it plunge itself into the side of her best friend.

Greenie hadn't seen it coming either. He was staring straight ahead, at her. He had been worried about  _her_. His eyes widened, jerking slightly at the impact, the angry look in the yellow became shocked, then disbelieving, and then scared. He stumbled. He lost the strength in his legs.

Raegan had trouble seeing when her eyes suddenly filled with tears, but she could see the blurry outline of her green friend fall onto his side in his pain. He was still looking at her. Scared. Scared for himself or scared for her?

He could barely make any sounds before be became still, his eyes losing their emotion and dying in front of her.

It had been a good shot. Clean. Taken only seconds to do the job.

Raegan couldn't really see as she started to thrash in the man's arms even more. She jerked this way and that, putting all of her strength into getting free, getting to Greenie. It was really lucky that the twins had returned then.

None of them had seen the two brown rock dragons until Sam attacked the man holding her.

He'd come from the left somewhere, knowing enough not to shoot a blast of lava in case he hit Raegan; but he did run straight into them in his haste to dislodge the grip the blond had on her. His enormous jaws bit down on the man's armor-plated arm. He jerked it like a dog with a chew toy. Like a viscous wolf attacking his prey.

She was let go, but only just in time to see another spear fly from the treeline and knock Sam down.

Sam wasn't as lucky to have a quick death. His was painful. It took too more shots before he was put down. His screams echoed in her ears, bringing back the memories of Lucy's friend in the woods, and farther driving in the nightmare of the present.

This was happening.

Raegan dashed over to her friends when she was free, standing between Max, who was now in a frenzy at his brother's fate; and Ms. Purple, who was too frightening to look at. She could hear the man shouting at her, when she turned around to look. The blond was angry, a sight that was nothing compared to the looks her dragons had. He was clutching his arm, which had dents in the armor so it was hard to tell how damaged it had been. His face was a mask of anguish and pain.

Raegan flinched at the meaningless words erupting from his mouth.

She's not sure how she got Max and Ms. Purple's attention, but she eventually tried to convince them to fly off. It was too dangerous to stay here. Who knows how many men were hiding out in the woods? It would be only seconds before they came out to finish them off.

"Please! We need to leave!"

She pulled on the side of Ms. Purple's face, trying to get her to fly off. Raegan just needed to get on one of their backs.

It was the tight grip she had on the dragon's face that pulled her out of the line of fire of the next spear thrown at them. Ms. Purple had jumped back from it.

There was more nonsensical yelling.

Raegan took no time at all to decide she needed to do it manually. Max would follow if Ms. Purple left, so she put her hands as high as she could get them on the dragon's back, and kick off the ground so she could pull herself up.

Whether it was the fear and adrenaline or the lower height of the purple dragon, she found this especially easy.

She was on autopilot, getting the two in the air. She tugged slightly on Ms. Purple's ears to get her to flap her wings, Max followed in suite. They needed to  _get away_.

They were just lifting off the ground when the man grabbed her arm and pulled her back off. Her breath was knocked from her as she awkwardly hit the ground/him. Her arms were painfully pinned while the dragon's turned around in their fury.

She couldn't find another way where the dragons would live. They couldn't fight the humans if they were so worried about her.

"Go!" Her voice was breaking while she still cried, "Get out of here!"

Another spear was thrown at the hesitating dragons.

They dodged, less furious, more sad.

Confused.

They watched her.

Raegan jerked her head at the sky, away from the danger, "Leave!"

The men didn't try to shoot them from the sky when it became clear they were following her direction and not going to attack them.

* * *

An hour later she was sat down in the middle of the camp, her hands tied roughly with a rope that rubbed the skin raw, while she watched the men from the beach flood the area. They were examining the body of Greenie and Sam, cutting off pieces; making her gag, and flinch, and cry silently. Her chin was against her chest, staring at her lap. Her legs were crossed.

Two of the men had already looked through her cave. She saw the blond man examine the tally marks counting her time there. They found her very few belongings, her bucket of blueberries, some of the spare wood she brought home with the weird language on it. They talked among each other, pointing a few times, then looking at her.

She was thankful that Max and Ms. Purple got away.

She hoped they had found Bee. Maybe decided together to go find another island. Flee from these people.

It didn't help the dread in her stomach threatening to bring up the bread she'd taken. She felt especially dirty from where she'd been held by the people as they tired her up. They didn't do anything  _inappropriate_  to her, but she still didn't like their dirty hands and fingernails and being touched by them  _anywhere_. It felt like being poisoned, being touched by the same hands that killed her innocent friends.

There was a loud squishing sound as the knives cut up other bits of the dragons. She'd not sure if they were planning on eating them, but she didn't want to take anything else these people gave her now. She would rather  _starve_.

Any appetite she had was nowhere in sight.

She'd sat on the ground for so long, with no one really talking to her (just  _about_  her so plainly it was like she was deaf), that she was almost relieved when they began to move out.

Even when they decided to take her with them.

She didn't even know they were actually leaving until another man had grabbed onto her tied hands and pulling her to her feet.

They directed her towards the woods, back to the beach.


	17. Ships

Raegan spent the next three days on the ship.

She didn't see much of it. She had been escorted almost immediately to a teeny room that could easily just be an empty closet. She had a mat on the floor, which was constantly swaying on the waves in unusual ways that made her feel sick, and the smell of the salty ocean never left.

Luckily, her nose realized it was fighting a losing battle and stopped reporting on it after the first few hours. It was still there, though. It didn't help with her constant distress, and the grief engulfing her after the murder of two of her friends. The feeling of suffocating in all her sudden feelings of horror and agony and grief.

There wasn't much light in the room, just enough coming from the large crack under the door and the small window at the front.

Her vow to not eat anything they gave her lasted maybe one afternoon. A few hours after they'd put a tray of bread on the floor of her room. She was starving, deciding it wouldn't do her any good to not eat. It wouldn't help her escape.

No one really spoke to her; but she was fed regularly, and someone came in every night to take away the foul smelling bucket from the corner.

Not going into detail about  _that_.

It was the morning of day three that she finally left her little room. The door had opened, she looked up from the corner where she was sat. It was yet another man she didn't recognize, tall and broad shoulders. The beard. What she had come to expect from this group of individuals.

He said something to her gruffly, and she saw the beard move a bit. It reminded her of in cartoons when characters had such large beards or mustaches that it covered their mouths. The only way an animator could show them talking physically was for them to move the facial hair around.

She stared at him, still sat on the floor.

He looked a little annoyed, then opened the door wider and stepped aside to let her through. He said the words again, this time gesturing for her to get up and get out. It took her three seconds, but she did stand to leave.

She stood at the door. Her eyes never left the man.

He turned and motioned for her to come with him.

It looks like they were letting her walk on her own now. Her arms wrapped around her body while she followed him. He walked down across a few hallways, passing some other people on the ship. They passed some stairways and barrels with the same markings on them. Everything was slightly dark, lit up by some primitive lanterns on the walls.

The ship was huge, but not so big that she couldn't find her way back to her room.

They reached a door on the clear other side of the ship. The man she was following only glanced at her before he lifted his fist to knock once. He didn't knock with his knuckles or the bones of his fingers. He banged the side of his fist on it, where his pinky wrapped up, making a harder and more echoy sound.

There was a noise on the other side.

He opened the door for her. He looked down and jerked his head for her to go inside.

She did.

She heard the door close behind her as soon as she stepped inside, and she stilled immediately when she spotted the two men waiting inside. One was standing beside a desk, the other was sat in it. She recognized the one standing as the blonde who had given her bread to get her to lower her guard, the other man was larger with dark hair and eyes. They both studied her for a few seconds.

The room they were in was much larger than hers. They had chests off to the sides of the room, there was another set of doors that were closed. There were shelves carrying many interesting artifacts, and a dusty bookshelf that looked like it hadn't been touched in years.

The darker man stood up to walk over to her, stopping about five feet away. He barked out something to her.

Raegan glanced around a bit, uncertain. She looked between him and the blonde.

He made another sound, and she looked back at him. He made a big show at placing a hand on his chest, patting it a few times. He nodded as well, and said slowly, "Ahgh - Nahhr. Agh - Nar."

His eyebrows raised at her slightly, expectant.

Raegan glanced around the room again, slowly getting it. She tried to mimic him. That was his name? "Ahg nar."

He nodded, repeating it again. "Agnhar. Aggnar. Agnar."

The name was as rough as the rest of the language, a very stark contract to what most of English was. She followed his command anyway, "Agnar."

He nodded, the only praise she got. Then he pointed to her, making another sound. She couldn't begin to try and decipher that one, but it began to dawn on her that he was asking for her name.

"Raegan," She pointed a finger at her chest.

She watched his eyebrows ruffle, then he looked to the silent blonde man.

"I'm Raegan," She said again.

"Rei Ghin," His voice was less hesitant than hers had been. But he looked at her for clarification.

"Raegan."

"Raygin. Raegan."

It didn't sound nice, but she recognized her name coming from his mouth. It wouldn't be hard to understand.

He nodded at her, then turned towards one of the doors to the side of the room. He said something to the blonde man, pointing as he went. The blonde turned, following whatever direction had been given, and walked over to the door, slipping inside.

She had been so busy watching him leave that she almost didn't notice Agnar ruffling through the papers on his desk. She looked at the back of his shirt, kinda craning her neck to see what he was doing.

He turned quite suddenly, taking a few quick steps towards her and showing her what was a very odd drawing of what looked like. . . was it a dragon? The few seconds she spent looking at it she could see it was very similar to Wybie. A drawing of a teeny-dragon.

She glanced back up at the man,  _Agnar_ , "Uhh, it's a dragon?"

He didn't understand her.

He pointed a large hand at her, "Raegan," Then he pointed to the picture, he said another word. It sounded similar to  _dragon_. Harsher, more K's. Was it their word for it?

She repeated him a few times, playing the same word lesson they had done with names, until she finally said it worthily enough for him, "dragon."

He nodded to her, then turned to the door.

It was at this time that the blonde man had returned to them. He had pushed what looked like an enormous chest inside. On it were many latches and wrappings, coming from inside were a few high-pitched growls she could recognize as a dragons. They had caught one? What were they doing with it?

She felt her heart speed up in her chest as she looked back at Agnar.

He pointed to the large chest, unwavering, "Dragon."

Then he crossed his arms at her. Waiting.

The blonde man had retreated to a corner, holding the same position. She looked between them, then to the chest, which was now unguarded.

Did they want her to. . .  _open it_?

She moved towards it, keeping her eye on Agnar as she did. He did nothing. Then she walked towards it.

It took her a few seconds of hesitantly holding her hand out to the chest, then looking back at the men to see if it was okay. They weren't doing anything, so she supposed she was allowed to open it up. Get the dragon out.

Seeing as they weren't going to influence her at all, she decided the best course of action would be to just get the chest open and go from there. She knew how to handle a teeny dragon like Wybie. She could do it again.

It took her a few minutes to get all the little latches open, and even longer to summon up the strength to open the heavy lid of the chest enough for her to peer inside.

As soon as the top opened to reveal the bleak interior, hitting the wood floors behind it, the small reptile shot out and knocked her on her back. Her breath left her as it sunk its teeth into her face. This was much worse than what Wybie had done, but Raegan later reasoned that this dragon had probably been treated so poorly and left in there who knows how long. A pack animal like their kind, being left alone for so long was bound to make him anxious and irritable. It was only reasonable for him to attack.

She felt tears pour out her eyes as soon as she felt the sharp pain on her face where he bit. He had drawn blood.

Wybie hadn't used his teeth on her, but this one had no problem with it as he growled and scratched her chest.

Her fingers couldn't move any faster to reach his chin. She tried her best to make soothing sounds under her duress. She could calm him down, if she only had a few seconds here.

"Shh," Her voice broke in the pain on her face. Her hand moved under his chin slowly, petting it and scratching it until he loosened his grip on her. "Shh, it's okay."

He let go of her, but his paws remained on her body in a good grip. He leaned into her hand.

When she could finally sit up, she held him in her lap, curled up like a cat. He looked miserable, distressed, hungry. Sad.

She hugged him tightly to her chest.

"It's okay, little buddy," She felt her face was a little wet with both her blood and her tears.

She missed her Bee. She missed Greenie. She was sad.

The warm body of a creature with thoughts and feelings as intense as her own helped her a little bit, she thinks. He gave her a grateful look, or a tired one. She rocked back and forth like he was a baby.

She didn't look up at the other two men in the room until her little purple friend fell asleep.

Agnar had watched her, disbelieving as she sat with the creature on her lap like it was a pet. Yes, it had attacked her, but it took her less than ten minutes to calm it into a deep slumber like that.

His second in command had needed to put a hand on his shoulder as soon as she opened the chest to keep him from rushing forward and bludgeoning the dragon into a pulp for attacking her. His second had been the one to tell him about the little girl they had found on the island. He'd told Agnar that she had dragons guarding her and if they could get her on their side, she could get dragons to guard  _them_  as well. Fight for them even, just like the stories they'd heard on their travels.

A Terrible Terror was nothing compared to a Monstrous Nightmare.

But she was still so  _young_.

They could get her on their side if they treated her right. Taught her to speak  _civilized_  like them, get her some warmer clothes.  _Feed_  her.

He didn't see how this plan could backfire, even if it somehow ended up limited to Terrible Terrors, the useless reptiles could still be used as a distraction if they ever needed to fight other vikings.

He was impressed with her. Willing to let her stay on the ship as a new hand. All he needed to do was teach her to talk.


	18. Name games

Raegan watched as Agnar stepped closer, eyeing up the sleeping dragon in her lap.

She couldn't help herself as she pulled the dragon closer to her side, almost shielding him from the man's view. She was still in pain, she could feel her nose bleeding (sure enough, it would leave a pale white scar years after this encounter; the light venom of the small species was enough to keep a mark forever after healing), but she did not want this dragon to pay for it. She would do everything she could to make sure he wasn't harmed.

Agnar stopped when he saw her do this, taking his hands and raising them slightly.

She didn't listen to the words when he turned to the other man, but the blond man didn't react to them verbally anyway. She eyed the blond with distrust when he turned to leave the room the way she came. She settled into curling the dragon up in her lap like a blanket, petting the purple scales of his wings.

Agnar moved wordlessly around the room, moving over to different shelves and chests before he went behind his desk to grab his chair.

He pulled it out in front of where she sat on the floor, and plopped on it.

They stared at each other.

Then, he pointed to her, "Raegan."

She didn't move.

He did it again, putting more emphasis on the word, "Raegan."

She shifted in her place, then mimicked him, "Raegan."

He pointed to the dragon in her lap, then his eyebrows raised.

It took her a moment to follow his finger, then she looked back at him. She repeated this motion twice before she gave the one word he had taught her, "Dragon."

He nodded at her. He paused for a moment, then stood again to stand beside his chair. He pointed to it, and slowly pronounced a word with hard K's and ugly H's.  _Chair_?

She copied him, and he shook his head. He gave her the correct pronunciation, one she was almost sure she could never say. It took several tries of going back and forth saying the word before he was satisfied with her, "Chair."

Then he would point to the dragon on her lap expectantly.

"Dragon."

He tapped the chair.

"Chair."

She watched Agnar, now a little more relaxed. The warmth of the dragon on her lap was comforting, so she easily found herself looking down to his comfortable face. The man needed to call her name for attention when he taught her the next word.

He was holding a blank sheet of paper.

The cycle continued.

Each time he taught her a word, he would make her recite all the past words he'd taught her, before ending with her name, and then his. By the end of their little session, she could say dragon, chair, paper, desk, book, floor, wall, door, doorknob, and window.

The thing about learning the words for the language, she found, was that she wasn't quite sure which thing he was meaning. He could be telling her the word for window,  _or_  he could be telling her the word for  _glass_. Or in his language they were one and the same, though  _that_  was a little unlikely.

He seemed to think after learning ten words, it was enough to send her to her room for lunch.

He let her take the dragon with her. She couldn't exactly voice her thanks for that, but she did find some comfort in it.

* * *

Agnar spent the day with her, after she was done eating.

He had come to her room personally a little while after she had her food taken to her. He had given it one short knock before entering, catching the sight of her munching on her bread while she hand-fed the now awake dragon the side of fish.

The dragon had curled up his back as soon as the door opened, much like a cat does when it hisses and bares its teeth. Haunches raised. He opened his mouth to reveal pointy-sharp teeth and clawing at the floor, ready to strike. Agnar had been ready to bludgeon it, but Raegan stepped in quickly before that was necessary.

She shouted at the dragon, "Spyro!" The dragon turned to look at her, looking like a little kid caught doing some wrong. Her voice became a little softer, "No growling."

She shook her finger at the dragon.

Agnar was a little amazed that it seemed to listen to her after only half an hour of being together.

As soon as Spyro sat down, looking relatively calm (even though he was still eyeing the captain like he was expecting to get attacked), Raegan rewarded him with a small bit of fish.

"Yes," She told him in praise, a voice she knew her mother to use on dogs. " _Good_  boy."

There was a few seconds pause.

She then fell back on her butt, her knees bent up in front of her. She looked back at Agnar.

She waved at him, a little shyly and uncomfortable with the silence, "Hey."

Agnar's eyes narrowed a little bit at that, not quite angrily, but enough to make her nervous. Then he raised up his hand to mimic her, replacing her soft English greeting with his own  _correct_  one.

Her shoulders visibly fell when he gave her a look that said with no nonsense to _repeat it_. The new words made her tongue feel funny and stupid. Or wrong. Like she wasn't doing it right. She mimicked him anyway, this time taking three tries before she got the word correct.

It was making her brain buzz.

Agnar then opened the door, motioning for her to follow and not questioning when the dragon came with her.

Spyro had flown after her when she stood up. He landed on her back, his little paws getting a hold over her shoulders while he peeked around her head. His tail was free to sway behind her, but he did curl his wings up to minimize space. He was like a backpack.

Agnar spent most of the day giving her a sort of tour, occasionally being interrupted by some of the crew who asked him who she was and what they were doing or about some of the day-to-day business that needed his attention.

He explained many things by miming them, out of the sight of his men, motioning as if he was eating something with his hands to describe the small mess hall. Some of the rooms were self-explanatory, some he mimed were for sleeping. Every once and a while he would make her practice the words she'd learned, correcting her pronunciation as needed or reminding her altogether when she was at a loss.

He seemed to get annoyed with her often, but he didn't thrash out or shout or scare her.

What really seemed to frustrate him was when he was interrupted by several people at once and made her stand over by the corner for several minutes before he got it all cleared up. Clearly he thought he was wasting valuable time, because he spent several minutes thinking on what he could do to solve this problem. He needed someone to be with her during the day, someone he trusted not to mess with her or her new dragon and was patient enough to not cause her to lose what little trust she had for them.

Later that day, he introduced her to the cook.

* * *

Raegan's head was spinning.

Some of the words were easy to remember. Some of them left her brain as soon as they arrived. She couldn't help it.

Agnar seemed to have so many other things going on, it didn't really surprise her when he lead her into a room beside the mess, revealing a slightly smaller man in an apron. He did wear the metal horned helmet the rest of the crew wore, but it was easy to see he was a cook by all the vegetables and fish and pots and pans around the room.

He turned at attention when Agnar entered. Raegan could only believe after a day of following him around, that the man was the captain of the ship.

When Agnar and Raegan stopped a few feet away from the cook, the captain turned down to the girl then motioned to the man.

She looked between them for a second before she said the greeting she'd been taught, stumbling over the pronunciation.

The cook smiled at her a little bit, looking the kindest she had seen from anyone on the ship so far. He returned the greeting, "Hello." The smile fell a little as he cautiously watched the purple dragon peer over her shoulder. She felt Spyro shift behind her as he smelled fish.

Raegan tried to pay attention to the sounds coming from Agnar's mouth when he once again demanded the attention of the room. He began to speak to the cook. She found herself daydreaming a few times until she was pulled back by hearing words she did understand,  _dragon_ ,  _dragon_ ,  _chair_ ,  _Raegan_.  _Dragon_.

She saw as the cook began to slowly nod, looking away from the captain's eyes and then down to her.

Raegan was a little uncertain when he suddenly crouched down to her level, something that hadn't happened since before she left her mother. His voice was a little easier to listen to than Agnar's. She preferred him. He looked nicer, cleaner. His younger face was more trustworthy to her.

She watched as the cook knelt in front of her, to her eye level, and listened intently as he repeated the greeting to her. This time he included her name, "Hello, Raegan."

She nodded to him, not ready to repeat the tongue-twister of a word.

He glanced up at Agnar, who stood with his arms crossed to the side, then he moved a hand to place it on his chest, speaking what had to be his own name. She listened to him say it three times before she tried it herself.

"Mahg - Nis," She said slowly. "Magnis.  _Magnus_."

His smile and nod was more rewarding than Agnar's.

He even added a new one to learn then. Their first five minutes of interaction, and he taught her his word for  _yes_  and then his word for _no_.

Agnar left her there without a goodbye, and she spent the rest of the day with Magnus.


	19. Pulling teeth

It was a week later, and Raegan had spent every day since then with Magnus.

Agnar checked in on her once and a while, but it was usually the cook that spent most of his time teaching her their language. He would always respond with a yes or no to say if she was correct or not, which was the very first thing he taught her by himself. He was very kind about her mispronouncing things and even seemed interested in Spyro (as opposed to indifferent, annoyed, disgusted, frustrated, or the like), who never swayed from her side.

He often used creative ways to teach her new words.

He taught her the word  _name_  by asking for his, a barrier that took several minutes to cross correctly. He would point to himself, and she would say  _Magnus_. He would point to her and she would say  _Raegan_. He would point to Spyro and she would say dragon.

It was a battle worth the spoils.

He taught her how to introduce herself by simply saying the greeting she already knew, then slowing down his words to add the, "I am called Magnus / My name is Magnus" part.

He taught her colors by picking out drastically different and bright colors and naming them for her: this handkerchief is red, Spyro is purple, my clothes are green. it became more complicated as they went on. There were many useful words that would be hard to explain.

Raegan was still devastated about what happened, missing her dragon friends, mourning the other two. She felt uneasy going to sleep on the ground and not against the belly of her Bee. Spyro was warm enough that she didn't exactly need a blanket, but she didn't like being held against her will like this. She wanted to get back. Magnus made it more bearable, he made learning the language easier and less of a chore.

That didn't stop the nightmares at night. Moments where she witnessed the same deaths over and over. Blood gushing, flooding the sand and rocks below them. The moment when she witnessed the life leave her friends' eyes. It built a resentment inside. Silent resentment. She accepted the fact that she had no power here. That didn't stop her from imagining her claws digging into the blond man's eyes as payback.

Then she would take a deep breath and push the feelings of anger away. They weren't doing her any good like that.

She never spoke of this to anyone.

She didn't speak to anyone else on the ship at all, really. They usually avoided her and her dragon. Sometimes she got foul looks from the men when she sat in the corner of the mess hall and fed Spyro her fish on the table. They saw it as a waste of food, but Agnar wouldn't let Spyro on the deck in case he would fly off, so there wasn't a chance for her "pet" to hunt for himself.

This made no sense to Raegan, but she couldn't exactly plead her case that Spyro needed exercise, so there wasn't much she could do. She just fell in line and did what they wanted her to.

What was she able to do about it anyway?

Most of her days with Magnus were spent with her helping him cook and saying simple phrases to her to see if she could follow them. He taught her what a carrot was, where to find the greens he needed for soup, where they kept the fish, and things like that. He taught her a word to retrieve something. She usually translated it as, go get this or go get that.

"Go get carrots," Magnus would say. And she would.

When he wasn't teaching her nouns and simple verbs, she was sitting in the corner, teaching Spyro basic manners and tricks.

Magnus was quietly impressed with the sight of her teaching the dragon to sit, lay down, roll over, and fly on command. She even taught it a simple come here command, where the purple dragon would fly over to her from wherever he was and curl up around her shoulders like a bird. A very large bird.

Agnar was the one that decided to  _change_  this easy routine.

He came to check up on her every other day, but this was the first time he came in to see her actually  _practicing_  with Spyro.

The captain immediately jumped on Magnus for allowing her to use her  _primitive_  language and not correcting her like he was meant to. Magnus had been set behind on his duties that day when he spent the entire afternoon giving Raegan new words to use as commands. She wasn't allowed to speak unless she spoke the correct way.

This left the eight-year-old frustrated beyond no end.

It was already confusing for  _her_ , but now it was interfering with Spyro. He knew  _her_  words, and now she was supposed to just switch them up just like  _that_? The only person she was comfortable with showing her obvious displeasure to was Magnus, but there was still nothing the man could do about it. Agnar was the captain.

They were lucky Spyro was such a smart creature.

So Raegan learned new words like sit, lay down, roll over, fly, and come here.

She was now used to saying many of them, creating broken sentences and words, none of which could actually describe an entire thought. On day twelve with the crew, Magnus began to think she understood more than she said. He had no experience with other languages, really, but Raegan could pick apart words she heard easier than she could produce them herself.

This turned her into a very quiet girl. She spent most of her time silently wandering around the room. She got to be quite sneaky with it all.

She was miserable on the ship, but she was never allowed on the deck really. The most she could do unsupervised would be walk down the hall and gather something for Magnus. She had no hope of finding some way off the boat when she couldn't even see where they were and where they were going. Spyro was getting just as antsy as she was.

Even if the two could find their way onto the deck, odds are they would be in the middle of the ocean and Spyro was too small to carry her very far (if at all).

So they settled for just living on the ship, maybe wait for an opportunity to slip away together.

The two were sitting in one of the storerooms, having a break of sorts. Raegan was munching on her share of bread while Spyro curled up on one of the barrels and napped. Raegan was used to men walking around her and paying her no mind at all, just going about their business. She had no problem with that. So it didn't really register with her that one man had come into storage looking for something.

She wasn't exactly paying attention when he focused his annoyed glare on the snoozing purple dragon a few feet away, lodging on a few essential boxes here and there.

Raegan only looked up when he began shouting, moving to grab the reptile to throw him out of his way. She couldn't react fast enough to stop the man from doing so, and had only just stood up when Spyro's eyes snapped open and his mighty chompers snatched down onto the viking's offending hand.

The man roared in his fury, swinging his arm around to try and dislodge the creature, slamming the dragon against the walls and boxes.

Raegan rushed forward, only just barely able to get a hold on the dragon's chin to get him to release his hold.

She stepped back from the cursing viking, her precious pet clutched tightly to her chest, ignoring the blood seeping from his mouth. Her thoughts were going a mile a minute, the only definitive thought being,  _I'm in so much trouble I'm in so much trouble oh Spyro oh no they're going to kill him_

She felt Spyro hiss at the man as he went to swing at them again.

The only reason Raegan wasn't backhanded into the wall was because all the screaming and shouting and growling of it all had attracted the attention of the rest of the crew. The man was pulled out of the storage area and sent to get his bloody bite wrapped up. Raegan and Spyro were sent to see Agnar.

* * *

Magnus had to hold her back once the captain came to a verdict.

He had her arms pinned to her sides while some of the men held down her dragon in a similar manner. They couldn't have a dragon on the ship attacking people. Agnar's first instinct had been to just kill the thing and be done with it, but he knew that would undo all the hard work they'd put into the girl.

He thought his solution was an act of mercy.

Raegan thought it was torture.

She watched as some of the men clamped down on the dragon's body and pinned him, before one of them pried open his mouth and began to tear and pull his teeth from the gums. They stuck something inside of his mouth to keep it open so he couldn't bite down, then used another clamp to hold down onto the sharp fangs before they twisted them out.

They were then tossed carelessly into a bucket to the side, the chunks of pink gums still attached leaving a bloody puddle inside.

They seemed to believe that the fear and pain and dreadful noises coming from her dragon's mouth were nothing. Raegan believed that they couldn't even hear them. They couldn't have, the way they acted so . . . emotionlessly. She just twisted in Magnus' grasp, shouting at them to let her friend go.

Of course that didn't work, and she was left the rest of the day to tend to the bleeding mouth of the tortured creature.

Agnar was annoyed that she spent the next five days glaring and crying silently at anyone who moved. She didn't speak to them and cut up the fish she was given evenly so she could feed them to her wounded companion as a soft mush. It took several days for him to heal enough that he wasn't bleeding so badly, but his gums were hard enough that he didn't need teeth to tear into something.

* * *

On her eighteenth day on the ship, Magnus came to her room to get her, "Follow me."

She did follow him, however silently it was. She followed him out of her room, down the hall, past the storage and then was directed to stand off to the side while he went to get something.

She mustered up the most powerful and angry glare she possibly could when she spotted what looked like a collar with chains attached to it. She barely listened when Magnus nodded to the broken dragon on her shoulder.

She didn't understand all of what he said but she did get, "- -for Spyro."

It wasn't like Raegan could do much to stop him from approaching her and clamping the metal down on her dragon's neck. She didn't move.

But she was still a kid, so her head perked up slightly when he motioned for her to follow him again. She saw him head towards what she knew were the steps leading to the deck. She was going to be allowed to see the sun again. She was going outside!

She only gave him a slightly infuriated look when he gently took the purple dragon from her shoulder. Spyro couldn't find it in himself to disagree, though his tail lashed and he stared constantly at Magnus' face in his discomfort. He seemed to be calmer the closer Raegan was to him.

Raegan was signaled to follow Magnus, so she walked in step with him as he walked down off the ship and into some sort of port. Magnus led her off of the deck onto a dock, where he carried a stressing Spyro towards what looked to be a market in the distance.

Her head whipped this way and that as she saw people of all sizes walking down a make-shift path past stalls filled with weapons and armor. She saw a blacksmith and a clothing line, and what looked like a store to sell shoes. There was a jeweler, a run down stall that sold books, a grumpy merchant featuring cabbages. She unconsciously stepped closer to Magnus as she looked around.

She didn't understand why they were there.

But they didn't seem to need to walk long because Magnus began to shout, calling out among the crowded market. Raegan had no hope of deciphering it all, but she did hear, "- - Spyro the dragon!"

He held the dragon harmlessly in his arms as a skeptical crowd closed in on them. They eyed the beast carefully, each talking over one another until one could be heard above the rest.

Magnus and the crowd spoke for a while, showing off the dragon to them like he was a prize.

It didn't take Raegan long to realize what was going on.

"What? No! What are you doing!"

She was given a sharp look; would be reprimanded later.

It would be useless to fight it when Magus clearly intended to sell a domesticated Spyro, earn a little spending money on the side. He demonstrated the tricks she'd taught him for the crowd of buyers.

"Sit," Spyro did so hesitantly. "Fly," He circled above the heads of the amazed crowd. "Come," He returned to Magnus' shoulder.

It took half an hour for the crowd to bid on the creature. To decide who would pay the most to have a dragon to serve them, even a tiny one like Spyro.

Raegan didn't get the chance to say goodbye. She just watched, devastated as a particularly mean looking man took one end of the chain and jerked her companion away from her, farther into the port and out of sight. The purple dragon barked at her pitifully as he was half-dragged half-led away.

Magnus held onto the chest of gold in glee, opening it up to count the pieces while she stood to his side in shock. It didn't cross her mind that she could have slipped into the crowd and out of his sight at this point, finding some way into the wilderness and befriending another dragon and trying to fly her way back to Bee. Anything to get away from the suffocating ship she'd been stuck on for so long, away from the sky and fresh air. Away from the nightly terrors keeping the dark cloud over her head and purple circles under her eyes.

Bee was the last thing on her mind at the moment. She was still getting over seeing Greenie and Sam so brutally murdered, being separated from Bee and hidden under a deck for the past two and a half weeks. Now the only creature she really trusted was gone.

She was alone.

She watched as some of the crowd shouted over each other to talk to Magnus, one she recognized as the blacksmith seemed to be particularly interesting, because he got Magnus to shake his hand happily after only a few minutes.

It didn't occur to her immediately that she would just have to do this again and again.


	20. Money from our friends

Raegan silently followed Magnus back to the ship, suddenly even more nervous than she was. Still shocked.

She didn't think about running off again. She was never a kid to run away when she disagreed with her mother. The habit shifted over when she turned in under Magnus' charge. It was a certain mentality that never registered clear in her brain. She simply  _couldn't_.

She just listened while he quickly found Agnar among the rowdy shoppers.

The captain was admiring several shiny weapons on a rack when Magnus came by to show off the chest of gold he'd earned. Raegan could only assume the captain knew about Spyro's fate, or had told Magnus to sell him in the first place. She glared daggers at him, furious. Bloodthirsty.

Agnar nodded appreciatively, then motioned to Raegan for a moment, saying something else she didn't understand.

Their talk only could've lasted two minutes, then Magnus just turned around and lead her deeper into the port. This time he kept a hand on her shoulder as he lead her. The entire situation was even more uncomfortable as she discreetly tried to shift away from his grip. It hurt to have the pressure of another human against her.

Either he didn't notice, or he didn't care.

It took them a moment of moving through crowds of people before they finally stopped in front of a stall Raegan saw sold clothing.

Her absolute hatred of shopping for clothes was very short lived when Magnus didn't repeatedly ask her for her opinion and only picked out a gray-brown shirt, darker pants, a sort of fur coat kind of thing that didn't reach down her arms (she saw other people not wearing long sleeves, and was a little confused by it since it was pretty cold outside (but then she had been wearing the same school uniform for almost a month and a half now,  _barefoot_ , so she couldn't exactly talk)), and then a pair of dark leather-looking boots.

She took a moment to appreciate the fact that she didn't have to try on outfit after outfit. He only bought her the one. He folded them up into a messy pile, then shoved them into her arms, before paying the man they bought them from a small handful of the coins.

When Magnus took her back to the ship, he motioned to the pile in her hand, tapping the top of it slightly with two fingers, "- - into this." She assumed the first word was meant to be  _change_. She went back on the ship without a word and into her room to do just that.

It must have taken her ten minutes to figure out how to wear something she wasn't so used to. She was filthy, only able to rinse off her arms and legs slightly before she slipped on the dusty-colored shirt and get a feel for how it fit her body. It wasn't made of a soft material like her school shirt, but it was nice to wear something else for a change. The dark pants were the simplest to put on. Self-explanatory.

She had some trouble with the leather boots. They didn't really have laces, so she just had to try and squeeze them onto her feet, shifting around every which way until her toes slid easily through. Raegan wasn't given socks, but it felt like the insides were made of some kind of fur that wouldn't give her blisters.

The fur overcoat went on last.

Raegan didn't realize how cold she was until she wasn't anymore.

Magnus was with three others when she appeared again. He didn't say anything to her when she returned to the deck to stand in front of him skeptically. He only motioned for her to follow him, and lead her back into the port.

Magnus was directing the men with him, pointing in odd directions as the group traveled farther from the port and into the forest. It took a while, but Raegan stuck close to him anyway.

By the time the other men accompanying them were spread out, Magnus finally turned to her. He eyed the trees around them carefully before giving her his full attention. He reached into his shirt, pulling out a sheet of paper with a crude drawing of what looked like Greenie. Or at least the same species.

The few broken words she could understand, she was expected to find and train one like she'd done with Spyro.

He stepped back from her once he was sure she'd gotten the message, and crossed his arms. She could see him watching her closely.

She was supposed to just do it like that? Just go and find a dragon and befriend it?

She turned around to examine the trees around her. She didn't even know if there were any rock-dragons on this island. All she knew about where to find them was that Greenie and his herd liked to hang around rocks, not forests.

So she started walking.

* * *

Even though the back of her mind was bugging her about how these men seemed to just be using her, she was extremely grateful that she was allowed to wander outside again. The fresh air was a thousand times better and she really hated traveling by boat because of the strange woozy way it rocked. She could tell that several of the men Magnus had taken with them were wandering about just out of sight, and the man himself was following her several meters behind.

If he wanted her to find him a dragon, she would find him a dragon.

She took a running start at one of the promising looking trees and jumped into the branches. Once she climbed to the top of the tree, able to see the sky without any resistance, she could try and find a good place to start looking. Most of what she could see were just more treetops, but she was more comfortable in the leaves than she was on the ground.

It wasn't long before she lost her tails.

She stopped hearing them, stopped catching them from the corner of her eye. She was free to look for some dragons on her own. She might even be able to catch a ride out of there. . .

She entertained the thought without the feeling that she ever could.

She waited in the trees, positive that if there were dragons on the island, some would stumble by her eventually.

It must have been an hour before she heard the tell-tale stomp of heavy claws on the ground. The loud sounds made her a little nervous at first, and she instantly looked around for the culprit.

She almost fell out of her tree when three terrifying boars sprinted past her tree. The squealing beasts were being chased by a dragon she hadn't seen before. Definitely bigger than the rock-dragons she had been looking for, definitely scarier than any she had the pleasure of befriending.

The huge dragon let out a ferocious roar, before they opened their huge jaws wide to breath out a burst of fire.

Raegan could feel the heat under her as the new dragon roasted the closest boar. The pig screeched in pain while the other two fled. Raegan lifted one of her arms to shield herself from the heat.

It was a miracle. The dragon had stopped only a few paces from the trunk of her tree, taking a huge bite from their kill. Raegan examined it while it ate. Their blue scales had darker sorts of stripes on them, along with several spikes leading down their back. Their tail was long and thin, much like a weird snake.

She was amazed by the sight. The dragon's jaw alone had to be as big as she was. She slowly slid down her trunk while keeping an eye on him.

When it became clear that the dragon wasn't going to notice her, she clicked her tongue a few times experimentally.

The dragon's head swerved around to bare his enormous teeth at her. She hadn't spotted the dark gray horns protruding from his head until he faced her.

Raegan instinctively lowered herself to the ground, going through the basic motions of keeping her hands in clear sight and making no sudden moves.

"Hey, big guy," She spoke to him softly.

The dragon tilted his head slightly, eyes narrowed suspiciously, but he didn't make any move to attack her.

He leaned in closer to her just slightly. Closing the distance.

"You're just beautiful, aren't you?" She didn't think it really mattered what she said to him, she just kept her tone soft and easy enough for him to understand.

When his scaly nose touched her hand, it was far warmer than she had felt before. Not necessarily dry, but the breath from his nostrils felt like an open oven on her skin.

Magnus found her cooing at the deadly dragon a few hours later. He was a little amazed that 'Garth' didn't immediately try to attack him or bite his head off. A Terrible Terror was one thing, this little girl could tame a Monstrous Nightmare in a single afternoon.


	21. Lion-hearted rabbit

In the next month, Agnar and Magnus had made enough gold selling dragons that they could easily buy or build six new ships and still have some leftover. They had upgraded their ship to include four new special cages designed to withstand a dragon's strength and firepower. Raegan was even bought a new bed in her tiny closet of a room, as a sort of reward for bringing in all the money. She didn't thank them.

In three months, they were chased away from port after port because of their 'false advertising.'

Raegan could tame and befriend any dragon she was faced with, but no one else knew how to treat them after they were sold so the reptiles would rebel, attack their owners, and fly off. A waste of money. Agnar seemed fine with this, as long as he got his moneys worth and fled before anyone could catch on.

At six months on the ship, Raegan didn't even really have to talk to other humans anymore. Magnus was still a sort of designated handler. She knew enough of the language now that she didn't need to ask for clarification. The only time she needed to make a sound would be to calm down a stressed dragon so they could be trained.

Magnus let her stay down in the cages, where it was her job to keep the dragons calm and collected so they could be auctioned off the next time they reached a port.

Raegan was sitting in the cage of a purple and orange Nadder (Magnus had made sure to teach her the 'proper' names of the dragons) she had lovingly named Prim after the little sister from the Hunger Games. She had never read the books, they were far too complicated for her, but she had seen the first movie and liked the different names of the characters. She even had a Changewing in the cage next to it that she called Rue, and a young Hobblegrunt she was calling Katniss was across the walkway.

She easily slid her hands over Prim's tail like she knew the girl liked. Her mind wandered as she massaged the dragon.

It was winter again.

Raegan felt a stab in her chest when she realized she had missed her ninth birthday. She still missed her mother, but she found great comfort as she leaned against Prim's side as though she were a pillow. The heat and the cooing was enough to ease her into a sort of nap.

Raegan loved her dragons. She spent all of her time below deck with them while the men of the ship caught new ones and stuffed them into the spare cages. It didn't take long for Agnar to realize that it would be relatively simple for his crew to just start taking the dragons they caught alive instead of killing them for dinner or exotic foods to sell at different ports.

Raegan was torn over her feelings about that.

She loved all of the ones that were forcefully taken from their homes, but she couldn't save them from their fate. She couldn't do much but what she was told.

A coward.

She loved them as they were taken from her and sold. And she remembered all of them as unique and individual creatures with thoughts and feelings and aspirations and families. And she missed them and mourned them when they vanished from her comforting hold or were killed for being "difficult".

Raegan spent most of her time on autopilot, taking care of her dragons, feeding them, sleeping with them.

She'd recently moved her bed down so she could always stay with them, which did wonders for the cold she was constantly feeling from the drastic drop in the temperature now that the days were shorter. Their heated scales varied depending on species. Hobblegrunts and Nadders felt about the same. Terrible Terrors were warmer. Monstrous Nightmares were the hottest.

Even after everything she had learned in her months with them she missed the comfort of her Hotburple. The nightmares began leaving her be on those spar days when she was so exhausted and overworked that her mind couldn't help but shut off the grief and gave her the familiar feelings of her first dragon guardian.

Some days, she woke up with the elder's smell at the forefront of her mind.

* * *

It was spring. Over six months with them and Agnar and Magnus began trusting her a little more. She was allowed to go to the deck, even if she never chose to. She was allowed to walk on land when they docked without much of an escort.

The vikings seemed to have forgotten that she wasn't just some dumb little kid. Left her to her own devices, mostly catching the dragons on their own and thrusting them into her care before setting off to another market. All she had to do was feed them and clean the stalls and make sure they didn't attack the audience at the auctions.

They didn't realize the mistake they had made until it was too late.

It started as usual as ever. She only had one dragon with her, a Tide Glider named Percy. He was long and thin, needy enough that he required a refill of water every few hours (his natural habitat  _was_ the ocean). Skittish to the vikings that sometimes walked through the cages, but he didn't attack them.

_That_  would have been a nightmare. He was one of the species of dragons that spit acid.

She couldn't do much but spend her time with him, running her hands over his glossy blue wings and rubbing his belly. It had taken him several months to get used to her; the only reason Agnar had allowed him to stay for so long was because of his rarity and the myths behind his species. She was a little bored without other dragons to coo at, but she was doing her best to just avoid talking to Magnus and Agnar. She only left the room to 'use the facilities' and eat.

Raegan was ashamed at how excited she was when they finally delivered another do her. For all intents and purposes, she was a captive here as well. She craved attention from the other wild animals on her level.

She felt even worse when the anxious beast thrashed his body this and that and tried to get the tight ropes undone from around his form. Agnar gave her a triumphant look, as if to say, 'look, another beast conquered!'

She didn't react to him at all. Ignoring him as though she wasn't even aware he existed.

The only creatures that listened to her were the dragons. The only creatures she trusted and loved.

Even ones who didn't yet trust her.

He was a sandy brown color, pale and almost white on his belly and dark like the bark of trees on his sharp back. He was a species she had never seen before. Not that it was very easy just this moment when he was thrashing every which way and trying to detach the muzzle from his flat snout. His long and thin tail swung around the cage. The wings jerking against the straps holding him together would grow to be strong and powerful in the years to come. She could tell he was a predator to be reckoned with.

The cheering vikings left soon after, sending a few spare taunts at their most recent conquest. Banging on the bars and sneering before they sauntered out.

Raegan got to work immediately.

She made soothing sounds quietly as she approached, but didn't enter the cage just yet.

It would be too dangerous right now, she had to wait until he calmed down enough to focus on her.

"Shh," She calmed him slowly. His movements began to still and his pale purple eyes dashed around the room several times before landing on her. Percy was watching intently from across the hall. Silent as a mouse. "It's okay, buddy. You're okay."

He gave a whine from deep in his throat which tore at her insides.

She opened the door to slip inside.

Her experience drew her to make eye-contact. Her months of working with them over and over let her know which species needed what and which techniques worked across the board. His pupils grew a little less threatening as she reached out her hand to pet him. He let her touch him without much complaint, now. She's experienced far more aggressive dragons in her time here, and the newcomer here was young and tired. He was too exhausted to put up a fight against someone like her. Her whole body was speaking comforting words to him.

Raegan took the time to study him as she took off the binds and buckles keeping him tied down.

At first glance he looked like he was covered in fur, she was pretty surprised when she felt cold scales under her hand as she eased his neck to rest on the floor. She undid the bind on his mouth and was amazed at the sight of his breath turning the air in front of his nose to mist. He was freezing!

He didn't have any horns, it looked like, but a few of his sharper teeth poked up from his lips even when he closed them. She gave him an affectionate rub as he ducked his large head into her side. He was shaking.

The groups that went out searching often kept dragons for up to two weeks at a time. There was no telling how long this one had been under their vituperative care.

It took her longer than she'd care to admit to realize that he was only a few years old. A child in dragon years, like her. Small, scared. Separated from his kind.

She didn't know really anything about dragon families and how long the mothers took care of their young; maybe he was already old enough to take care of himself. She couldn't know a difference.

That was hopeful thinking.

She knew better than to rely on that now.

Raegan didn't speak again for quite some time, just curled up with her new companion as her mind wandered over everything she'd helped the vikings do. They both missed their homes. They both missed their parents. They were both just children.

Raegan worked on autopilot as she gently placed his dozing head onto the ground again and crawled down his body to unlatch his wings and set them free. She didn't have a distinct thought for the rest of the day.

She spent her days gaining his trust and earning the relationship she forged with all of her charges. Percy sang out softly to them at night as the orphans cried together.

Their shared experience couldn't be communicated, the two of them; but Raegan knew about him and she could only assume he felt the connection as well.

Two sides of the same coin.

Raegan couldn't bare the thought of it happening to another child. Someone else like her.

She lived her life on autopilot, doing as she was told. She turned away whenever a viking raised their hand up to grab something off of a high shelf, as though any moment she would be beaten. But then she would turn around and try to comfort her wards.

She beat the thought inside her head.

_You haven't even tried_.

Could it even be worse than this?

But for weeks she did nothing.

Then she heard the news from Agnar.

"Be arriving in port soon," He told her offhandedly, polishing the gold helmet he'd gotten himself from a more recent trip. "Get the new one ready."

She left without a word, returning to her stables and directly into her little brother's cage.

She didn't even know what she was  _actually_  planning until she searched through the stores of the ship for food to pack and blankets to keep later that evening. She lived her life on autopilot, acting without thought came second nature.

She paused as she stuffed a few fish into a bag she could sling over her shoulder and hang by her waist.

It was late night before she knew it. She could barely see her hands in front of her as she gathered bread for her escape.

_I'm leaving_.

She stood silently in the dark room by herself for several seconds. Then she moved on. Her face was blank. Her heart empty. She hesitated a few seconds as she turned to walk through the door, then grabbed a long rope settled on one of the barrels. When she got back to the pens, she eased her way inside of the young, frosty dragon's so she could wrap the rope around him.

It looked like he was very streamlined and didn't have anything jutting out that she could hold onto. The dragon coo'd at her but remained passive enough that she could wrap it up.

I guess the last few hours of cuddling made him trust her a little more.

Just by eyeballing him, it looked like he could carry her weight just fine. Percy was never one for long bouts of physical contact, and Raegan never even considered riding him out of there. She gestured for him to follow her, shushing him as she did so, and left the door open.

It only took a few minutes to open up the other cage and wake Percy from his peaceful snooze. She mostly just planned on the vikings being too confused to catch her on the way out. Who could expect her to do something like this? She opened up the door, and lead the two dragons out.

The rooms and hallways were mostly black or just lit with a dim lantern. Percy groaned lightly as he looked around, and Raegan felt the frosty dragon shivering behind her. Not from cold, he didn't seem to have it in him; but he seemed nervous enough. Understandably.

They ran into no one until they got to the foot of the stairs leading to the dock.

As soon as they made it upstairs, she was shouted at. Mostly confused, annoyed, angry voices.

Raegan froze for a few seconds, then scrambled over and hopped on the younger dragon's back. She hadn't flown in several months,  _half a year_ , but she could still nudge him in the correct direction to try and get him to take off. He did without much complaint. The stomping feet of enormous and intimidating vikings influenced all three to flee with haste.

She could feel Percy following them behind while she tried to get a good hold on the younger dragon. The vikings didn't stand a chance to catch them. They all had disappeared in the sky in a matter of seconds.

She kept a tight hold on the ropes she'd tied to the dragon, and her other hand held the straps of her bag in front of her.

This was a huge difference from riding Greenie. His body was streamlined, narrow head, built for speed. But still growing, a child really without the grace of someone who can carry someone without being hindered. She experimented with leaning different directions to make him bank. She heard Percy follow them this way and that.

Her new dragon friend followed her lead without much complaint, it just took a few minutes of coordinating to work it out properly. He was willing, but would grow tired quickly if she pushed him too hard.

Her one mild complaint was that it was a little chillier than she was used to. She didn't gain any warmth from the dragon she was riding like with Greenie or Bee. It looked like this kind of dragon was naturally cooler, blending in with the cold feeling of the winter around them.

Raegan just ignored her blue fingers for the hours she flew until they finally came across an island.

Her only immediate plan was to find some place to rest for the night and then work to find her Bee.


	22. Unforsaken road

It took Raegan a few days to finally get Percy to go back to his home in the water. She was going to be mostly based inland and having a Tide Glider that needed frequent visits to the ocean wasn't practical. She was already having trouble finding ways to keep warm on the back of her new frosty friend, so getting wet or going swimming was a big no-no.

Her new dragon friend was perfect for wind resistance, but when it came to actual  _heat_. . .

She ended up naming him Mowgli, after the little boy from the Jungle Book.

Mowgli had purple eyes, unlike any she had seen on any other dragon. His pale belly was perfect for camouflaging with the clouds, and she learned recently that he had tough talons on the curve of his wings. He could hook them into cracks on a mountainside and his dark brown back would blend in just fine.

Raegan learned that he didn't even breath fire, either. Instead he could shoot varying shots of ice and frost. Without a dragon to build a fire for her, she mostly just ate from the few berries she could recognize on the island and the occasional fruits.

Other days, she curled up with the native Terrors and Nightmares and Nadders (but mostly Terrors). They were such friendly neighbors, willing to help out their cold sister.

She didn't want to leave her new home, though.

They'd found a cave on their island soon enough and spend most nights cuddling, but Raegan was beginning to realize that it wouldn't work permanently. She was simply too cold and had no way to warm up aside from the Terrors that frequently left in the middle of the night. Either she needed to find some other hotter dragons to befriend and sleep with, or find a way to get some warmer clothes.

And she wasn't too convinced that she could catch a boar or deer or something to get furs. She may be from Georgia, but she wasn't a hunter.

That is why she fixed together a makeshift wooden door over the mouth of her home, then disguised it with leaves from bushes and flowers. It reminded her a lot of the secret entrance to Repunzel's tower in the movie Tangled.

She wishes she could watch that movie again.

Either way.

Raegan made a home for herself within the first week of being on the island. She convinced Percy to go back to his home in the sea, and she occasionally went down to the beach to see him. It seemed most dragons she met loved her enough to catch her a meal regularly. Percy was one of them.

Raegan's cave was located on the side of the mountain, and she lived there with her new companion. She still had no clue what kind of dragon he was. Agnar and Magnus never taught her his species.

She was intrigued with the thought that he might be a rare breed. Or maybe one no one had ever discovered before.

He was only a child, like her, but he didn't seem to be missing his family anymore.

Mowgli followed her around on her walks throughout the island, occasionally running off his own way to chase a small rodent or rustle through the leaves above her. He was like a playful puppy, or a kitten.

She didn't have any real plan on what she was going to be doing now that she was on her own again, mostly resorting to making the island more habitable and getting better at riding Mowgli before she could try traveling to another island to look for Bee or some market and eventually make her way back home.

Raegan had originally considered herself a great flyer, from her month on her own riding Gronckles. However, there could not be a more drastic difference between the Boulder Class (she was very proud of herself for being so well versed in the dragons in such the short time she stayed on the ship) and her new partner.

Mowgli was lean. He was built for speed and had next to no body heat for her. At best, he was what could be called room temperature. It made any long flight miserable when she spent the entire ride shivering, but she found herself becoming much more resilient to it. Growing used to feeling cold all the time and only really becoming uncomfortable when she crossed over into  _freezing_. Going out for longer and longer flights each time and standing against the biting wind with new biological armor. Mowgli usually forced her to go back if he found that she was taking in too much, though. He seemed to care for her as she did him, and he usually positioned himself between her and the mouth of the cave as though her were protecting her. He probably preferred a lower temperature.

It didn't take much for her to love him. As she had done with Bee.

She just had to find a solution to their problem here.

She might could survive on her own for a little while, using Terrors as warmth and having Mowgli to watch her back, but she needed man-made supplies if she could make it a more permanent home. At least before she found some way to make it back to her mom.


	23. Surviving on your own

Raegan is a little lucky from all the time she spent with Magnus, she will reluctantly admit.

He taught her the very useful skill of skinning and preparing the fur and scales and meat of different animals that found their way into the kitchens of their ship. This had mainly started with her learning to deal with the scales of fish and how to properly cook them, but then it lead to her learning how to deal with the pelts of whatever mammal her dragon friends had brought her.

Mowgli and Raegan had happily claimed a cave dug into the side of a mountain, but they spent most of their time in the day wandering about in the forests surrounding. Or flying. Both were extraordinarily excited at being free. Taking moments to smell the trees and fresh air. Eyes closed and faces at the sun, breathing in their freedom.

Even starving to death out here would be better than staying on that ship another second.

Raegan could only believe she survived so long the same way she was surviving the colder temperatures. Building up a resistance and accepting her fate. Dunking her head under the water and acknowledging that  _this is how things are now_.

Until she did something about it. So she turned her attention to the more  _dangerous_  wildlife.

Not to be confused with dragons which seemed to be all too happy with welcoming her into their home. No, she and Mowgli had the delightful opportunity to run into a sounder of wild boars that decided they really just didn't like two peaceful children wandering through their territory.

The harsh growling and cruel stomping on the ground behind her had tipped Raegan and her close friend off that something was following them, and her tarragonal partner had been just quick enough to flap his enormous wings and pull the young girl out of the way. His clawed feet curled around her upper arms and together they watched as the boars hissed and snarled under them.

Of course it spooked Raegan enough that she decided to leave the vicinity immediately; but the more she thought on it, the more it made sense to start hunting. A good exercise for her dragon riding, and now that she knew how to skin animals, she could use the pelts as the beginnings of a relatively comfortable bed.

"C'mon, Mowgli," She grinned at him as she shuffled her way onto his back. He was kind enough to kneel down for better access.

Then he shook out his back just to mess with her a bit, tongue flopped out like a golden retriever and turning his head back to watch her.

Raegan squeaked, and fell forward to wrap her arms around his snoot.

"Mowgli," She whined. "Enough of that. I got an idea that I think you might like."

He purred somewhat under her and trotted forward a few steps, waiting to listen to her idea. Her legs were landed on either side of his shoulders, right in front of his wings, and she nudged them a bit to encourage him into the sky.

It took no time at all for him to follow her lead and jump up into the air.

It was true, Mowgli didn't have any spikes or horns to hold onto; but some of his larger plated scales could give her a decent grip. She leaned forward on his back to duck most of the wind as he glided them over the trees, getting more used to flying at such speeds with a limited embrace around her companion.

Raegan's planning and thought process grew spectacularly in her time on the island after escaping the ship. It was no wonder that it took her several days to find the boars she was looking for. She was still nine. And her dragon friend was not much more mature.

They often got distracted.

_Oooh, look! Are these snowbarries?_

_This tree looks like it would be so much fun to climb._

Even, 'Oh, goodness! Look at this baby Nadder!' was the equivalent of finding a bunch of puppies to play with.

Sometimes they both straight up forgot what they were even doing and were just content with flying around the island and having fun together.

But eventually they came across their target. Some wild boars munching on the vegetation on the other side of the mountain cave they called home. Raegan immediately sobered up and nudged Mowgli's side to get his attention.

"We gotta be real quiet, boy," She whispered to him as they landed in the treeline several meters away. "We just need to get one, okay? Scare the rest of them off."

Mowgli crept forward around the boars. There were about five. Raegan just needed to get one.

Then she had a thought, did she even have the tools to do this? She couldn't very well skin an animal like this without a knife. What is she going to do? Use her hands to rip it apart?

Thinking farther on it, she didn't.

She groaned audibly, making several of the boars look up and glance her way. They snarled. Mowgli snarled back, much more impressively and the violent pigs squinted at their hiding spot as they contemplated whether attacking them would be worth it or not. They hadn't quite been spotted yet.

Raegan tapped Mowgli, "We need to get out of here, boy."

Her companion was reluctant, confused about her changing her mind. His attention focused on their pray. She supposes he could eat whatever they caught anyway, but the entire idea made her feel like they would be wasting parts if they did it like this.

She needed to somehow put some tools together if this was going to work right.

Not looking forward to that. She almost gave up there and then.

Perhaps she  _would_  starve to death out here.

But Mowgli followed her lead. Jumped into the sky and flew them back a safe distance from their hunt while Raegan tried to think about what she could do.

She would need something sharp, preferably clean, so that she could cut up the body and actually make use of the parts. She felt a bit like an idiot for not seeing it. In the meantime, fishing could be useful. Didn't need man-made tools for that when she had Mowgli and Percy to help her.

The Tide Glider seemed to love her just as much as before and would offer up food in return for setting him free.

Maybe a day at the beach could clear her mind.

* * *

It didn't.

It was just another week of thinking about possibilities and never actually landing on something.

Her only thoughts before this time had been maybe sharpening a rock? But rocks are pretty dirty (even if she did wash it off) and she couldn't find one a good size that she could use well. The only other option she could think of was going off to try and find a market and trade some fish for a knife. But that idea came with its own set of issues.

She would have to make a basket to carry her trade that would take  _forever_  of trial and error to get right. Then there was the risk of getting caught, by Agnar and Magnus or by any other dragon hunters. She obviously wouldn't bring Mowgli into the market with her. Something could always go wrong.

There might not even be someone willing to make the trade (even though a basket full of fish is a perfectly acceptable trade for a single,  _good_ , knife).

She wasn't even sure if she would be able to make her way back. Or  _there_. She knew the general direction, she had to go (based on her memories of the direction the ship had been heading several nights ago in the dark while she was already pretty preocupied with getting away alive (she might have a vague idea and even that was up for debate)) but if something went wrong that is an awful lot of open ocean to have to swim through.

No, she wanted to stay here until she was more confident.

Which brought her back to the rock idea.

She shook her head. All these thoughts were making her brain hurt.

She threw a solid and flat rock into the ocean to try her hand at skipping stones to pass the time. Mowgli was in the trees behind her playing around and freezing leaves to play with while Percy lounged on the beach next to her, watching her game.

She groaned again, throwing another rock. She wasn't too good at skipping stones, but, eventually she'd get it, she supposed. She just needs to keep trying. What's something else she could try? What other angle could she look at this from? It wouldn't be that big of a deal if she never solved this problem, but it would be pretty sad if something as simple as this eluded her.

There had to be another solution.

She threw another rock, flicking it around her wrist so it spun.

Nothing seemed to work here.

* * *

It was a while before she found a solution.

But it filled her with so much joy and pride that it was all worth it.

It came from watching the boars interact.

She was in the trees again, alone this time.

Mowgli was off down by the lower caves, playing around with some of the more nocturnal inhabitants of the island. An unfamiliar species of small dragons that reminded her a little of Terrible Terrors. They were friendly enough and had a neat trick of flocking together to appear as though they were one giant dragon. Mowgli absolutely loved them and they showed their affection back by mimicking his own form.

Mowgli liked to spend some time down in their caves early in the morning as they were just going to sleep. They didn't really like the sun, Raegan supposed.

Despite her bedroom and new home being in a cave, she wasn't a big fan of such enclosed tunnels and caverns and liked to stay up and outside. She let Mowgli have his fun on his own and meet up with her later.

So when she spotted the dangerous neighbors marching their way near her (while she munched on some berries from nearby bushes), she scurried up the nearest tree to hide.

Fun fact: boars can't climb trees.

But this astonishing circumstance is what lead her to solving her tools problem.

She watched as the biggest of the sounder trot on around. She examined them curiously, even while her belly stirred with anticipation and slight fear. She knew they couldn't get to her here in the tree. Even as they lived in a world with dragons, she knew the beasts never seemed to look up. It's a miracle they survived this long.

But they were pretty intimidating, so maybe it's not so surprising.

Either way, she was stuck in the tree for well over an hour, watching the sounder as they ate the vegetation around and eventually rested in the shade of her tree. It was lucky she didn't try to leave because it was this time that she noticed the mouths of the largest of them.

Logically, she knew boars had tusks like this.

But now she got a good look and came to have an idea.

Tusks on adult males, this one in particular, were long and sharp.

She tilted her head as she watched. It would be far easier to sharpen something like that with a rock, right? It never occurred to her that she could use bones or something like that as a knife, but here they were.

A possible solution.

Mowgli was more than happy enough to help her corner and hunt a larger male. He was less happy about carrying the thing back closer to her cave where they would not be disturbed. The beast must have weighed over triple what Raegan did, so she had to wait for Mowgli to come back for her on a second trip.

Either way, she got a new padded skin for her bed, and the beginnings of a knife.


	24. No

Raegan was pressed tightly against the side of her dragon. Mowgli narrowed his eyes and she could feel the silent rumble through his body as he suppressed a menacing growl. This didn't mean he didn't bare his sharp teeth.

The two were slightly more used to seeing people now. Raegan made occasional trips to nearby markets, bargaining for different foods, furs, shoes. That sort of thing. She had missed most of the gifts of having a calendar, but her best guesstimate left her at about fifteen now. Spent near five years living on her own, and happily no human feet had stepped on her island in all that time. She was beginning to think no one ever would.

_Where had hope gotten her before?_

Nice to think about but not practical.

Her life in isolation had helped her learn many things on her own, but as she had predicted when she first arrived, there were just some things man-made that would make her life easier. After a year of exploring every nook and cranny of her home island, she finally decided to branch out where she knew would lead her to other people.

Raegan's trips to the nearest market were few and far in between. She tried her hardest to make most of her things from what she found. She could use the remains of Mowgli's hunts, the furs of boars, tusks, bones. She wore a heavy gray pelt and her bed had many paddings from it all; the excess which she used to rebuild and reinforce her door often, camouflaged and hidden on the outside and lined with more pelts in the inside.

She hung up all the furs from the boars to soak up most of the cold from the cave walls. She found she much preferred the furs of wolves to sleep on that the stringy and rough skins of swine. Her bed more resembled a nest than it did a human bunk because she usually slept curled up on her side in a sort of ball which left it in a circular shape with a lumped up rounded edge. Mowgli had a similar one along the left wall from the mouth, between herself and the door.

Despite the sleeping situation, their home gave off a feeling of a human presence either way. She worked her way to hang some torches along the wall for a glowing light, collected some few spoons and forks into a bucket in the corner she used to tow down to the beach to wash with her few homemade bone knives, and along the side wall to the right of the mouth she hung up some of her favorite drawings she made.

Like most small children, she was absolutely terrible when she started; but after five years of no distractions and nothing to do, she began to see some progress in her art.

They were nearly all drawings of dragons (save for one of her firsts that she kept in the pocket of her heavy coat) but most of all Mowgli, who was a photogenic as it came. He seemed to enjoy her art and took pride in posing for as long as it took. Then he would all but force her to hang them up on the wall, as though he were a mother hanging art on the fridge.

Paper was harder to come by here than it was back home; but if you knew who to ask at the markets, it was nice to buy in bulk.

That was the extent of her interactions with other people. Her language skills were fine enough for that but anything more and she did not care for it. Mowgli and she were experienced enough with fighting back against the occasional ships they passed on their long flights to and from the shops, but most of the time they just avoided humans.

She was happy on her own after the short year she had lived with vikings. She learned valuable skills from them, but she was much happier away from the dragon-slaughtering vikings.

Isolationism was her favorite solution.

But sometimes people don't leave well enough alone.

* * *

She and Mowgli were out on the beach when they were spotted.

At first she thought they were just a thunder of many different dragons together, causing her to tilt her head at them curiously. She squinted at the one in the lead, a black dragon she didn't recognize. She barely had a chance to check the others when she spotted the latch of leather along the creatures back and the bits of metal poking through. Against the pale sky was a startlingly familiar outline.

It had a  _rider_. A  _saddle_!

She heavily doubted that it was very consensual. Vikings simply didn't seem the type that would be able to earn a dragon's trust like that. She glared at the flock, pulling back to the nearest treeline and taking Mowgli with her. They must have forced the dragons to fly for them.

Mowgli eyed them up himself and followed her train of thought to begin growling.

His lips pulled back and showed off his many large and sharp teeth. The heavy snort from his nose let out a misty air of frost.

Raegan knew she would need to hide out from them so she could formulate a plan to get them away. She certainly did not want to leave her home for them to take over the place. She sincerely hoped they were just passing through.

"I'll need to sneak up on them, Mow," She told her friend as they eyed up the direction the newcomers were landing at.

Her dragon companion hissed.

"It'll be fine, boy," Raegan reassured him. "It'll be easier for me to stay out of sight on my own. Head back near the cave," She headed him off, but as he moved to take off she said hurriedly. "Stay out of the skies if at all possible. I don't want you spotted."

He grunted, but bolted out through the trees toward their mountain.

Raegan had grown a good foot and a half during this time on her own in the island, even found herself eating twice as much as she went through her biggest growth spurt yet. She could not stand on the same small branches she could when she was younger, but she was still an expert at climbing trees, mostly silently with a very minimum of rustling the leaves around her.

Of course there was always a reaction when she jumped between trees, but she would rather be out of sight in the rafts than on the ground. Like Rue from the Hunger Games, bouncing through trees. She found it freeing, to be able to recreate the feeling of flight she had when riding Mowgli.

She had to stop several times to hide from them as they flew overhead. They looked to be scouting around the island, possibly for a good place to sleep since it was going to get dark soon. By the time Raegan found where they had landed, the sun was beginning its descent into a beautiful orange shade in the sky.

She did have the luck of finding out they were grouping up in the middle of an open plane where she would have no way of sneaking closer to eavesdrop. There were five or six of them, she seemed to always be miscounting, and each of them had a dragon.

Gronckle, Zippleback, Nadder, Nightmare. Then the dragon that she didn't recognize.

Now that she was closer and got a better look at their mannerisms, it seemed fairly similar to Mowgli. His body shape, wings, the way he moved and hit tail swayed. Even his eyes, despite them being a looming green than the vibrant purple she was used to.

She was a sucker for the color green. It was her favorite.

Not that she would tell Mowgli. He was a little proud.

This dragon looked far smoother, though, slightly smaller and would definitely have a chance to beat Mowgli in a race. A slightly smaller and smoother body would make sharper turns more easily.

If she had to guess, they were both from the Strike class.

He was  _fascinating_.

Beautiful.

She scolded herself, shaking her head often, at how curious she was about them. She knew, deep down, she  _craved_  conversation. People. Humans. Her family. Someone who could open their mouth and speak to her. Ask how her day was. What she wanted for dinner. What she had done that day.

She wouldn't trade Mowgli for the world. But she had felt something tugging at her heart since the day she'd gotten lost in the woods all those years ago.

On the off chance that these people were actually  _kind_  to dragons. . .

No, she would expect and prepare for the worst and put all these hopes out of her mind. She could  _not_  stand being disappointed.

_From now on_ , she told herself.  _You are a robot. Beep, bop, boop. Who needs_ feelings _?_

She would  _not_  be surprised again. Caught off guard. Tricked.

Raegan looked on as the leader, a tall young man with reddish-brown hair, tried to get his group's attention several times. He was the one riding the black dragon. They seemed like every other vikings she had met before. Rude, loud, prideful.

It took the black dragon letting out a blast of purple light to get their attention so that the man in charge could give out directions. The others followed his word immediately, but she could see the grumpy looks of disagreement and boredom on their faces even from her place in the trees.

It was much harder to hear them from so far away.

If they were speaking English it would be easier. She would only need to hear some of what they were saying to get an understanding. Like a sharp S or a stark T, blunt D's and the occasional vowels with M's. A second language she wasn't even fluent in, that she didn't even practice as much as she should, was like trying to decode a math test six grades ahead of you.

Watching was better than nothing. She wouldn't risk trying to sneak closer.

A beautiful blonde young woman went off with a much larger blond man in search of water. What looked like a pair of twins knocked their helmeted heads together as they began picking up several small rocks. The shortest of them, a black-haired muscular guy, marched off on his own towards the treeline not to far from her. Probably to gather some dry firewood.

They were staying the night.

Since he was closest to her, Raegan kept her focus on him and the Monstrous Nightmare following him.

She was very curious about the nonchalant look he carried as he wandered through the woods to pick up lumber that she almost missed the final member. The leader of them was digging through the saddle bag in search of something.

Raegan froze in her spot, like she usually did when she felt she was flirting with danger. The black dragon was looking her way suspiciously, he would certainly spot her if she decided to leave right then.

His lips curled back slightly and she could see more than hear the growling coming from him. His rider gave a bit of a surprised look as he pulled out some tools from the sack. He said something to his mount, giving him a little pat as he followed his line of sight.

Raegan still didn't move, and held her breath. Her legs were beginning to burn from the crouch she was holding on the thick branch. Her legs wanted to shift to relieve the feeling.

Her relief came from a surprise on the far side of the clearing. Just as the large blond and beautiful woman came back from collecting some fresh water, the twins who had been collecting rocks hid behind a massive boulder to give them a shock.

The man screamed loudly, his water pouch going flying into the air before it spilled out into the grass. The woman spilled hers some but resorted to glaring daggers at the two cackling troublemakers. The light blue Deadly Nadder following her let out a screech and sent out a few spines from her tail to nick the clothes of the couple and attach them to the boulder they had been previously hiding behind.

It was a little irritating, it seemed, but something deep inside Raegan made her miss having someone to  _know_. Having  _friends_  you know well enough to travel to different islands with and play pranks on.

The leader turned to deal with them, probably to scold the twins while the other two had to go back to get more, momentarily forgetting her. The black dragon had glanced away as well, but quickly turned to glance back at her.

He wasn't growling anymore, but his narrowed eyes spoke of distrust.

With the humans' attention away, Raegan didn't see herself getting another chance soon, so she turned and jumped clear to the next tree behind her then to the next in hopes that the humans behind would push the sight away as a squirrel or strange critter bounding through trees.

She met back up with Mowgli near her home. By this time the sun had near set and the sky was dark enough that they could risk flying back up to their mountain cave. Raegan opened up the door for Mowgli and closely latched it behind them, shivering at the idea of other humans being on the island.

"They're staying the night," She spoke out-loud for her partner. "I don't know if they're planning on staying for good."

Mowgli coo'd at her, and with both their minds racing and anxiety filling up their bones, Raegan put out the torch and they settled down for the night.

Fifteen minutes of sitting in the darkness and her mind was as active as it was at noon. Her worry brought back the bad memories of the ship and slowly, like a child contemplating going to their parents room because of a bad dream, she crept from her nest to feel her way to Mowgli's breathing form. She nudged his wing closest to her and he lifted it up so she could sleep in his grasp together like they used to do when they were little.

Raegan knew how vikings acted. She wished she didn't.


	25. It almost worked

She and Mowgli were lucky enough to spot one of the blonds walking off on his own into the forest. Maybe she could catch him and get them to leave. Spook him? Probably not. Vikings had stubbornness issues where Raegan herself knew most Americans would roll over and show their bellies. She and Mowgli would ask them to leave, forcefully. And if they didn't, she would chase them off.

She doubted they had  _her_  kind of experience with dragons anyway - -

Then she gave herself a slap on the forehead. She didn't have the privilege of underestimating  _anyone_. It wasn't just her at stake. They could potentially be loads better flyers than her, and she was only one person.

That was how she came to hang off of the back of her dragon as he stuck the talons on the curve of his wings into the cliff-side. His dark brown back could easily camouflage into the rocks, and the furs on her back could easily camouflage her into  _him_  if she leaned down against him.

She listened as the blond ranted above her, pacing.

"Oh, you can run, but you can't hide." he was saying, who knows who/what he was talking to/about. "I guess you can fly, you can also run, you can run or fly, but either way you can't hide, because nothing escapes the watchful eye of- -!"

She was surprised by his sudden shout when the viking stepped off the edge of the cliff and fell down into the ravine. Like an idiot.

Raegan leaned to the right. Mowgli let go of the cliff and swooped down to catch the young man on his back. His sudden shout was cut off with an 'oof.' She might hate vikings- -

Wait.

Not hate.

She might  _really_  resent and dislike vikings (much better), but she would not want to see one fall down a cliff and break his neck because he was being stupid and walked straight off of a cliff. Raegan swept Mowgli back down to the ground, then she spun around where she was perched on his back and gave the hitchhiker a solid kick to his side. He slipped off and onto the dirt below.

"That was awesome!" He shouted, face still eating the rocks he'd landed on.

Raegan stayed on Mowgli's back. The blond had wandered off without his group or his dragon, so he made an obvious choice to ambush(?); but he was still taller and stronger looking than Raegan. Like any grown man would be compared to her. She would do a lot better to have a four thousand pound dragon on her side with a mouth full of powerful chompers.

Her partner growled at him, and he bolted up to sit on his knees.

"I knew I was right!" He was grinning ear to ear at them, not a care in the world. "Oh, they are going to be so sorry when they find out I've been eaten by a huge monstrous dragon! Let all around hear, Tuffnut Thorston was  _right_!"

Raegan wasn't sure if she'd heard him right, so she just stared at him.

Eventually, it seemed like this guy had a flair for drama, the viking looked back up at her. Or noticed her for the first time. He was crouching cowardly in front of the dragon, somehow still finding it in himself to whine about it all.

It was like he didn't know how to close his mouth.

Until- -

He looked at her dumbly.

"Wait," Whatever accent he had put on for his little show immediately left, leaving him talking in a voice that sounded like gasoline on gravel. "You're a - -?"

Raegan gave her companion a slight nudge with her foot and he took a few steps forward to snarl at 'Tuffnut' up close, taking no time to decipher the unfamiliar words he used. Raegan didn't care about his questions. She didn't trust vikings. She just wanted to be left alone. It would be better for everyone.

She opened her mouth and thought for several seconds to make sure she didn't mess up, "Take your friends and get out of here."

"What? Who are you?"

Raegan gritted her teeth and almost growled at him, a habit she'd picked up from the only creatures she'd really spent time with. Snarling and growling at unwanted beings was almost second nature to her.

"This is my island," She told him in her best commanding voice, but it was still relatively quiet. She didn't yell at him, "Take your people and  _go_."

He scrunched his face up, "I knew there would be something terribly wrong with this island. A crazy dragon girl here to kill us if we don't leave," He didn't seem too concerned about it. "How will we ever survive?"

It was hard for her to be able to tell if he was mocking her or not.

Maybe she could throw her knife at him.

 _No_. No.

Where did that thought even come from? You can't hurt people like that, idiot.

Her nose wrinkled in her face and Mowgli snarled at him in unrelenting hate. He too had a resentment towards vikings from those weeks spent as their prisoner. He crawled forward several paces and dug his claws into the man's front shirt. Just enough to not break the skin.

"Ahh! Wait, no, no, no!"

Mowgli opened his mouth wide to show the dark purple insides around his tongue and the dozens of sharp and pointy, long, white teeth he could use to tear his victims apart.

Raegan allowed him to do this before nudging his sides and leading him back into the sky.

Mowgli flew them back up to the top of the cliff the man had fallen from and dropped him harshly into the rocky top. Raegan didn't need to land as she hissed at him between her teeth, "Leave."

The man didn't really think twice, he just turned tail, picked up a clucking chicken from the ground behind him and bolted through the trees to the direction of their makeshift camp.

The way Raegan saw it, there were two options here.

Either he would tell them and they would pack up to go without question, which she hoped would happen.

Or, the much more likely, he would tell them and they would come looking for her and it would be up to her to intimidate them enough to scare them off for good. This would probably end in her having to out-fly them, or knock them from their mounts. Hopefully after that they would leave well enough alone.

Raegan would guess she had about an hour to get ready for some people to come after her.

She and her partner took flight and went back near to their mountain to come up with a reasonable strategy.

* * *

Mowgli flew up high in the air over the island. His pale belly could blend in with the clouds at a glance, and they were silent enough flyers that they could probably get the drop on some of their enemies. It did not take long for the riders to come out after her; and as she worried, they all came out at once in one large flock.

Lead by the black dragon and the Zippleback, they headed towards the cliff where she had tried her hand at scaring one of the twins off. Mowgli followed them in the sky behind them.

The two watched.

The leader on the black dragon stopped to look around the cliff as though she would stick around there that long. Then he turned to the Zippleback riders to question them some more. It took much longer since Raegan wasn't within earshot to understand.

Then the leader pointed them out, split off into two and three. The Zippleback and leader; and then the Gonckle, Nightmare, and Nadder.

Raegan squinted at the group of three. She would do her best with dealing with the Strike dragon last, it looked to be the most difficult to out-fly.

Tailing the three other dragons was not very difficult. She flew up behind them and after several seconds of building up her courage, she nudged Mowgli down into a sort of dive on them.

She went after the Gronckle's rider, Mowgli's talons out to snatch him up by his shoulders and then disappearing into the clouds again before his dragon had a chance to even notice the attack.

He screamed loudly, enough to make her flinch and consider dropping him then and there, before she steered Mowgli over the closest body of water to drop him in. They had dived down until they were a good ten feet from the surface and released him.

Mowgli and she turned to glance back to make sure the guy could swim, but it was only a second or so later that the Nightmare and Nadder were on her tail so they both fled back up to the clouds.

She and Mowgli were lucky it wasn't a clear day.

They went after the Nightmare's rider next. It took a few sweeps down and a lot of patients to hide and get behind the pack again before they got a clear shot and managed to rip him from the saddle. They flew farther from the island, causing him to shout and scream from under them.

"Ahh! What are you doing?! Who are you?"

Of course she didn't answer before she dropped the muscular boy onto one of the protruding rocks separated from the main island. He landed with a stunned  _oof_. But, just like before, the Nadder was just on her tail when they had finished.

The Nadder's rider was a much better flyer, and this time Raegan was prevented from disappearing into the clouds. The beautiful woman could make the same turns Raegan did, just as fast.

Mowgli's strengths did not lie in quick moves like this. His large, bulky body prevented it. However, his streamlined form and powerful wings made him incredibly fast in a straight line.

Raegan knocked her head to the side, pushing her hair from her face as she looked behind her to check how far back her tail was.

It was this slight moment of distraction that made her run past the opposite side of the island where the Zippleback and the leader were. She must have surprised them both, because it took them both a few seconds to react.

She took this moment in to examine the red outline of the black dragon's tail fin. Not natural, like some fabric prosthetic.

Mowgli bared his teeth at the opponents, snarling.

Raegan had an idea.

It took ten minutes to finally coordinate enough to get rid of the twins on the Zippleback. Mowgli picked each of them up with one paw and carried them back to one of the older forests on the island to stick them in the tallest tree she could find.

The branches were finicky and would even take her a while to climb all the all through.

She was glancing back at them to make sure they were alright up there before she could her hand at getting the rest, but once again she was caught off guard by the riders.

The black dragon pulled in front of her and threw her course off a bit to avoid a collision.

She could now hear the leader yelling at her.

"Stop! Who are you? Please, we just want to talk!"

Raegan did  _not_  want to talk.

But now the leader was in one place, relatively still. It was easy to charge up a quick blast of ice and aim for the weak spot.

She could hear the crackling of the frost as the prosthetic tail coated over. There would be no lasting damage, but the effect was almost immediate. The dragon was thrown off balance and began to fall from the sky and into the sharp pines below.

A harmful fall, Raegan could see.

She pushed Mowgli forward to catch them before they got hurt.

But even while Mowgli was extremely powerful and had strong wings, two thousand pounds of squirming dragon are still two thousand pounds of squirming dragon, so the descent was only slowed a bit as Raegan aimed to put them down on the softer sand of the beach.

Her strategy almost worked, before she was yanked from her own spot on Mowgli's back.

She let out a startled scream as she felt the Nadder's claws curl around her upper arms and pull her away from her best friend.

Mowgli roared loudly as he turned away to try and retrieve her immediately. This gave the black dragon ample opportunity to fall from his grasp and into the sand below them. Mowgli tried to chase after the Nadder carrying her, but a soft blast from the black dragon distracted him enough to turn him back.

He roared back at the downed dragon and rider and Raegan tried to look back at them to shout, "Don't kill him!"

She was talking to Mowgli, but it didn't seem like he could hear her at that point anyway.

Killing a viking is probably the absolute worst thing they could do at this point. They just wanted the riders to leave, not come back full swarm intent on revenge. That would be a nightmare.

The beautiful woman landed them far out of earshot of the fighting, near the first place Raegan had dropped off her defeated comrades. The beach where the larger blond boy was just swimming up from the water, panting and exhausted.

He scurried on over to them as soon as they landed.

Raegan was pressed to the sand with the Nadder holding her in place, making curious cooing noises and tilting its head at her from curious angles.

"Is that the - - -?" The large blond man asked. She didn't understand the last word he made. "Just a little girl?"

"Well, this  _little girl_  has a lot of explaining to do," The blonde woman replied angrily as she jumped from her dragon's back.

"Where's the dragon?"

"- - -'s taking care of it."

The choice of words was startlingly familiar and sent chills down her spine.  _Taking care of it_  was the way Agnar referred to pawning off the dragons she caught and tamed for him.

"No! No, no, please!" Raegan squirmed in the sand as she tried hopelessly to get free. "Don't hurt him!"

The woman worked to grab her attention again, making several sounds she didn't recognize and leaning down in the sand to get a closer look at her. She wisely stayed out of reach as she tried to speak to Raegan.

The Nadder must have been fairly confused as well, switching to hold her in place with one paw while turning her head to study the small child properly.

Raegan was stuck making several clawing marks in the ground and covering herself in sand while the other three stared on uncomfortably in slight concern, confused by their small attacker. Hyperventilating and snapping in some foreign language they'd never heard before, glaring and shouting nonsensical words.

"Hey, calm down," The woman's voice reached her after a long minute or two. The voice wasn't gentle or comforting like the words would lead you to believe. It was a command.

Raegan turned her face to look at the blonde knelt down beside her. Her face was heating up, and she felt like she was going to burst into tears. This just made her feel dumber. She got  _caught_! Mowgli was going to pay the price for it. Why had she been so stupid? Of course she got caught! Taking on six people with only Mowgli by her side.

Raegan put on her best 'I'm-Panicking-But-I'm-Still-Furious-At-You' glare.

"Look, we're not going to hurt you," The woman said.

The words were simple but it still took Raegan several seconds to decode in her mind.

Raegan tried to make the deep breath she took in to calm herself not shake, but the woman must have caught it anyway.

"Let me go." She tried to sound intimidating. Her voice giving nothing away that she hadn't already exposed during her capture.

The woman said something back, almost like she was a little amused.

Raegan took that as a 'no.'

"We have questions."


	26. Q and A with distrust and disagreements

"Who are you?" The large guy asked.

Raegan didn't answer.

"Are you alone?" The woman asked.

Raegan stayed quiet.

"How did you learn to - - - dragons?"

Raegan almost felt like a cat, ears twitching curiously at the unfamiliar word. She assumed it meant  _ride_ , but otherwise she remained silent. Raegan avoided looking at them, and the only time she lifted her head up was when the golden brown Gronckle touched down after finally finding them and the large blond gave her a swift snuggle into his side.

A strange sight if they were cruel and forcing their dragons to obey them as she had theorized. Feared. Stressed over.

She just wanted to go back in time and just spend her whole life avoiding these people. Maybe that would have been better. They still might've left her home on their own, and all of this could have been avoided.

The beautiful woman seemed to be getting a little irritated with her, so she finally gave up and looked back at her friend.

"Why don't you go pick up - - - from the - - -." She pointed out to the landmark in the distance where Raegan had dropped the Nightmare's rider off at.

The blond followed her orders fairly easily enough, hopped aboard his Gronckle and gave her a pat on the head. The dragon certainly. . .  _seemed_  happy with him. Raegan didn't recognize any of these dragons, the Nadder or the Gronckle, from her time on the ship with Magnus that she spent training them. So she didn't think they had simply been sold to relatively smart/decent people.

Raegan turned her head to watch him go.

The blonde woman watched her with arms crossed.

Contemplating.

It took a while of Raegan uncomfortably avoiding the face of her captor before the blonde lady began to dig through the saddlebag of her dragon. When she pulled out a reasonable bit of rope, Raegan began squirming again, which caused the woman to kneel down and hiss quick words at her while holding her hands to the sand with her weight.

From the position she was in, belly to the ground and dragon on her back, the lady was pretty much forced to tie her hands where they would hang in front of her body.

It was a great relief when the dragon was directed off her shoulders, and Raegan was allowed to sit up.

The Gronckle came back with the Nightmare's rider, whose dragon was nowhere in sight and landed a few meters down the beach.

"Why didn't you just call Hookfang?"

" _Why didn't I just call Hookfang_ ," The darker haired rider mocked his friend in a dumb voice. "You don't think I tried? He thought it was funny, then flew off."

The large blond guy looked like he was struggling not to snort.

As though on cue, the red Monstrous Nightmare flew down again to meet up with them. Raegan really wasn't expecting them to be fond of their riders like Mowgli and she were with each other. It made her embarrassed to some degree, but then she pushed it down when she thought about how,  _she still didn't know these people_. She was perfectly within her right to react this way.

She sat from where she had been standing on her knees and crossed her legs.

She used the sleeve of her arm to wipe some of the sand from her cheek and chin, and got distracted by a splash of wave off the shore of the beach. Raegan turned her head just in time to spot the flash of a greenish blue fin flush under the water's surface.

Raegan straightened her back as she stared out into the water. She still had Percy.

The Monstrous Nightmare's rider began to speak, but she wasn't listening.

She supposed she could try and get to Percy. . .

But that might put him in danger.

Tide Gliders were a little skittish anyway; it might be better if he stayed put. She wouldn't want him to get caught too.

A hand suddenly entered her field of vision, causing her to turn into a turtle and flinch back. Then she glared at the appendage and the person it was attached to. She bared her teeth instinctively, a growl in the back of her throat ready to push forward.

It was the Nightmare's rider again.

"Helloooo?" He was mocking her, maybe a little upset she left him on a rock in the middle of the ocean. Raegan gave him a ' _what the heck do you think you're doing_ ' look.

She turned her attention back to the pretty woman. She seemed like she was in charge.

"Listen, I need you to answer some questions," The blonde lady seemed more exasperated than anything. Her eyes were narrowed and her arms were crossed, "Do you even understand what were saying?"

Raegan chose to stare at her.

"Why wouldn't she?" Nightmare asked.

"Before, she was yelling in some other language I've never heard of," Said the larger guy. "She seemed pretty upset."

_Well, I was_. Raegan thought bitterly, with a bitter expression.

"Then how did she talk to Tuffnut earlier?" The muscular guy asked, mocking.

"Tuffnut's good with languages," The blonde woman did not break her eyes away from Raegan's face as she answered. "It would not surprise me if he  _somehow_  left that detail out."

"Great, so we need those two - - to get anywhere," The Nightmare's rider threw his arms up and paced.

Raegan scrunched up her eyes at the word he used. A compound word. One meant a type of food? The other was 'head.' What kind of insult was that? Like knucklehead?

"No, she was talking in Norse a minute ago, I think she's just- -" The large blond man was interrupted by a faint hissing in the distance. Something reminiscent of a snake or a really fast car zooming by, and she jerked her head up as she tried to figure out what it was.

She didn't have to think long. A few moments later, the black dragon and his rider swooped down to land on the beach. The Zippleback and twins returned with them. Raegan felt her heart drop in her stomach and her shoulders curled over.

"Hey is everyone, okay?" The leader ran back over to do a quick glance over everyone to make sure big-bad Raegan didn't tear off all their limbs and skip rope with their intestines while he was gone. She was determinedly looking at her foot crossed in front of her as she listened, "You got her."

"Oh, I'm fine," Spoke up the mouthy Nightmare's rider in a voice that said the exact opposite. "All she did was drop me off on a - - !"

Raegan was fairly certain she knew the word for rock, and he did not use it. Language barriers.

"What happened to the dragon?" The blonde woman asked their leader, ignoring the the whiner.

"He was not too happy about losing his rider, that's for sure," The leader answered, eyeing Raegan up. "He ended up flying off."

Raegan looked up experimentally in the sky and clouds to see if he might have been looking for a time to rescue her, but they seemed pretty empty to her. Her head rolled to look in the direction of the water. Percy was looking like a better and better idea about now. But she knew that plan would probably be the most selfish thing she had ever done: putting a valuable dragon like him at risk because she had been caught like an idiot.

She was beginning to feel something like bugs crawling under her skin in her shoulders and back that made her want to curl up into nothing and hide.

"Who are you?"

The man even had a leader's voice, too.

Raegan's eyes flickered over to his face for a second, but then she looked back to the water. All she could see were waves. There was no sign of Percy's scaly body.

The idea of putting him in danger hurt her, especially since Tide Gliders were well known for their healing saliva. Raegan herself used it for her cuts and bruises and off-putting illnesses throughout the years. If these people decided to sell him for a profit, there's no telling how far they'd go.

"We're not sure she speaks Norse fluently," The large man said.

"She hasn't said anything?" Their leader turned to look at the rest of them, "Hey, Tuff! Didn't she talk to you?"

The twins had been in the back of the group, conniving, when they were suddenly brought back.

"What?" They looked up. The boy continued on, "Yeah, she told us to leave the island." He suddenly grew very smug, "I told you there would be something wrong with this island. And  _I_  was  _right_!" He turned to his sister as though to rub it in more.

"Was she speaking Norse?"

"Uhh. . . yes?"

"You don't remember?"

"Uhh, no, no, she definitely was," Tuffnut answered after a second. It was hard for her to tell if he was being serious, and she had  _been there_. "Definitely."

"Well, I'm sure we can come to some sort of understanding," The leader said sarcastically, turning back to face their temporary prisoner.

Raegan's eyes had drifted to the unfamiliar dragon. He really was beautiful. The man had somehow melted off the frost from the prosthetic tail so he could fly again quickly. If he had been the one to design it in the first place, he had to be really smart which made Raegan want to keep quiet even more.

Raegan was not a cunning character. This guy could definitely outsmart her. She didn't want to give him any more advantages than he already had.

But his dragon was adorable. Beautiful.

The structure of his face reminded her a lot of Stitch from a favorite childhood movie of hers, and, more importantly, Mowgli. The dragon tilted his head at her slightly, any and all signs of apprehension and aggression gone from his eyes.

She tilted her head the other way, the ghost of a smile on her lips as she mimicked him.

He made a moaning sound and let out a snort of dry air at the sight of her copying him.

Raegan released her breath through her nose in a little laugh before she could stop herself.

She looked away from the dragon to their leader again as he stepped a little closer so he could kneel down to her level, "Listen, we're not going to hurt you. We just want to talk."

Raegan looked at his face for a moment before her eyes caught on his foot. She tilted her head at it like the dragon she'd just been watching. The motions came naturally after them being her main influence for nearly six years.

It was also a prosthetic. Some metal bit not even trying to resemble a foot like it might work at her home. She didn't know how he didn't limp.

Her cheeks warmed up a bit as she realized this might be rude to stare, so she turned her attention back to the water for a quick look for Percy.

"I understand you must be used to people hunting and trapping dragons and that's why you wanted to chase us off," He looked like he was thinking about what to say.

Raegan opened her mouth and thought carefully about the words.

The thing about silence is people tend to listen to someone who has been quiet for a long time.

Raegan wasn't sure if she liked that in this instance or not.

"I don't trust you."

The man sighed, but his head was nodding. "I understand; but you have to believe us, we don't want to hurt the dragons."

_Yes_ , Mowgli  _just happened_  to fly off away from this man and was not hurt  _at all_. Raegan was  _all_   _for_  taking his word for it.

Raegan shifted her fingers a little, but the knot they were tied together with was not coming undone anytime soon.

She spared another glance at the tide beside them. Most of the time if she wanted to see Percy she would stand by the edge and just call his name. There wasn't really a discrete way of doing it here.

Raegan eyed up the man kneeling in front of her. He had a nice face.

But he was also a  _viking_.

She glanced over her shoulder towards her mountain in her worry. She just wanted to go home and hide.

Coward.

She really was an open book, though, because the blonde woman was watching as she looked this way and that. She certainly didn't trust Raegan at all.

"Astrid, give me your knife," Their leader said, suddenly making Raegan snap her head back to look at him.

A knife?!

It only took her a second to get to her feet and back up a meter, standing sideways, legs widened slightly so she could move to dodge quickly. To her right, the black dragon gave a cautious growl at her sudden dance.

"Whoa, whoa, hey!" The man stood up as well and held out his hands like she was a wild dragon that needed to be calmed down. He spoke slowly, "Hey, it's okay."

She narrowed her eyes at him, then glanced at the water. The blonde woman held out a sharp knife to the man, but he shook his hand at it before turning his attention back to her.

"I just want to cut the ropes, okay?" He motioned to her tied hands.

Raegan looked down at them comically for a second, fingers already twisting as she tried to get them off herself. Then she glanced back at the vikings.

She had her own knife in her coat. Raegan looked back down to where it was. She could cut herself free with it. She hadn't dared do it before because she had been under the scrutiny of six strong vikings. Only now they had all but given her permission. . .

She put her hand through the front of her coat and pulled out her own sharpened boar's tusk stuck to a short wooden rod; it took a moment to handle it right, but then her rope was sliced through in one smooth motion.

"O _kay_ ," Raegan was not fluent in Norse, but the way the leader said it sounded very young and awkward.

"Where is my dragon?" Raegan stared him down now that she was on her feet and let free. Even as this man had several inches on her, and ten times the power in the situation, he looked nearly as uncomfortable as she felt.

"He's okay. He flew off shortly after Astrid caught you."

The woman was Astrid. Raegan glanced at her.

Raegan wasn't quite ready to believe him, though.

"We just want to talk, okay?"

"We are talking," Raegan was bitter, eyebrows narrowed and legs bunched as she prepared to flee at any given moment.

"What's your name?" This time it was Astrid who asked the question.

Raegan hesitated. Even after all this time, her mother's life lessons of never giving out your name to strangers ever was instilled in her bones. It was a long three seconds before she relented, "Raegan."

"My name is Hiccup," The leader told her. Then he began pointing to his comrades in turn. "This is Astrid," The blonde woman. "Fishlegs," The large blond guy waved his hands innocently at her. "Snotlout," The dark haired guy did not seem impressed with her. "And the - - , Ruffnut and Tuffnut."

Raegan learned the word for twins, she guessed.

Raegan eyed each of them up a bit before she opened her mouth to ask a question, "What are you doing here?"

Hiccup and Astrid exchanged a look.

"We're looking for an island to build an outpost."


	27. Q and A with poorly hidden curiosity

They wanted to build an outpost.

Raegan's first thought was a place to house weapons and people in case they needed to attack something nearby and she didn't care for that one bit.

"Why here?"

Hiccup leaned awkwardly from foot to. . . peg, "The surrounding islands here are not quite as safe."

"Wild boars," Snotloud glared at the back of Hiccup's head.

"Whispering Deaths," Fishlegs called out, looking a little scared at the mere thought.

"The Death Song," The girl twin said, Ruffnut?

"Wild boars  _again_ ," Snotlout seemed a little upset about this, his arms crossed and an angry look on his face.

"I think she gets it," Astrid held up her hands a bit.

Raegan watched her. The beautiful woman seemed like a bit of a second in command.

Raegan respected her from when the woman tailed her earlier. The Deadly Nadder was a great dragon, but no wild one could so easily keep up with Mowgli like she did with hers. The teamwork was incredible.

"Where are you from?" Raegan was losing her hostility and was more genuinely curious.

"Berk," Hiccup answered in a one syllable word that Raegan wasn't actually convinced was a real thing.

Weird name.

She hadn't heard of it; but, deep down, was she really expecting to? How many places around could she even name?

"It's about a day and a half's flight," He pointed vaguely out to the ocean.

Raegan didn't want to seem less by admitting that she never felt comfortable leaving her home after certain. . .  _past_   _experiences_ , and in turn had never heard of their home island, so she just nodded at him.

"What are your- -" She cut off suddenly as she realized she didn't know the word for it. She rubbed her hand to her eyebrows a bit as she thought. "Plans," She said to herself even thought she knew it was hopeless. Some of them were looking at her like she was crazy (mostly Snotlout), but Hiccup looked more curious than anything at it than anything. She settled with, "What are you wanting to  _do_?"

"The outpost?" He answered her, working his way through her undefined accent, "Well, the flight back to Berk is a fairly long one. We wanted to look farther from the - - for new dragons."

Raegan, ever the open book, opened her mouth curiously and looked over towards the general direction of the forest where she knew the most prominent natives of the island lived.

"Have you found any so far?" Raegan asked, raising an eyebrow seriously.

"Yes, actually- -" Hiccup went to answer.

"You mean the Death Song?" Bitter Snotlout said bitterly, "That nearly killed all of us on the first night out. Don't leave out any important details, Hiccup."

"Death Song," Raegan repeated to herself. She didn't recognize the name, but it would make sense if they were the first to find and name it.

"It uses it's captivating song to lure dragons into a trap so it can eat them," Said Fishlegs excitedly.

"It almost killed all of us," Said Tuffnut with the same level of enthusiasm.

"It was awesome!" Ruffnut agreed with her brother.

Sounded like a siren to Raegan. She's never seen a dragon like they were describing.

"Did you kill it?" Raegan asked wiping all emotion from her face, testing them.

Hiccup looked horrified by the thought, "No, of course not! Listen, we- -" He paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. "We don't do that."

The twins looked into the air thoughtfully, tapping their chins and crossing their arms in thought, "Weeeeeell- -" Said Ruffnut.

"You  _did_  kill the Red Death," Tuffnut happily brought up.

Raegan stared a hole into the side of Hiccup's head as he turned to half-glare at the two troublemakers.

"The Red Death was the queen of their nest and behind all the attacks on our village and constantly ate the dragons under her tyranny," Hiccup explained in a long run on, more to his group than to Raegan who decided it was too complicated to get involved with. "It didn't give me much of a choice."

"I think it's our turn to ask some questions," Astrid said, her expression a little harsher than Hiccup's. She had stayed quiet so far but seemed more interested in gathering information from Raegan, "Who else is on the island?"

Raegan blinked at her a little before she turned her head to the sky as she recalled, "Uhh, Nadders, Nightmares, Gronckles, Terrors, some Zipplebacks. Another kind I never learned the name of," Speaking of the nocturnal mimickers Mowgli was such good friends with. She still wanted to leave out Percy for the time being since he would be best hidden. "I've seen a few Timberjacks before, sometimes other species pass through here on their," she paused thinking for the word for migration, "yearly traveling(?) paths."

"I meant other  _people_ ," Astrid shook her head at the list.

People?

Raegan just kinda stood there for a moment and then lifted up her arms just the slightest, palms facing the group. Her head tilted to the side as she left the answer up in the air, suddenly aware she still had her knife in her hand. It was just her.

Hiccup looked a little surprised at this, "You're on your own here?"

She gave a what-to-it sort of smile. Convinced that it wouldn't have been good to lie to them. She had already lost the fight.

"How long have you lived here?" Astrid asked, slightly less hostile and more genuinely curious now.

Raegan looked up to the sky for a second doing some quick math in her head, and then gave her best guesstimation, "About five years? Six?" She drew out the five to let the uncertainty sink in.

"You've been here on your own for five years?" Hiccup seemed to find this just as surprising.

"Well, in my experience, vikings don't really like living so near to dragons," Raegan tried to answer, talking slowly as she ran the algorithms in her head to talk. "And I am not very keen on leaving my best friend behind just so I can be with other. . .  _people_." She would have called Mowgli her brother as she normally thought, but that would raise too many questions she didn't feel like answering.

"How old are you?"

Raegan held up her hand parallel to the ground then shook it side to side to indicate it varying, "Fourteen or fifteen, I'd guess."

"You started living here on your own when you were  _nine_?" Surprisingly, it was Snotlout this time that second-guessed her. Doing the math himself.

"Yes?"

"That can't be true," He was scowling at her as though she were lying.

" _Okay_?" Raegan wasn't going to argue with him.

"You couldn't have been nine when you came here," He shook his head. "Where are your family?"

Raegan shrugged, masking her face to be indifferent, "You tell me."

"You don't have a family?" Hiccup asked, gentler, probably more hurt about the idea than Raegan was herself. She had time to deal with it by now. Not that there was any way she would show her true feelings to these people she just met if she could help it.

"Well, obviously I  _had_  one at some point," Raegan pointed out. "But there're not here and I don't know where they are, so. . ."

"What do you mean fourteen  _or_  fifteen?" Fishlegs asked. "Do you not know how old you are?"

Raegan half turned her torso, arm gesturing to the woods beside them, "Hard to keep track of days out here."

Unlike her first month with Bee a lifetime ago, she did not keep track of her days on the island as she did before. She never thought to until far to late to start up. She went by seasons (which was hard enough on its own because the summers were weird and inconsistent (other than occasional times where there were two weeks of straight sunlight or darkness which confused the heck out of younger Raegan before she learned not to question it)).

Eventually the conversation turned to their companions.

"How long have you been training dragons?"

A year before she met Mowgli, about, she'd guess, "Six years."

She could see it on Hiccup's face that he was a little surprised. "Really? We've only been training for three years."

Raegan was a little envious that the group clearly had done it all together. Different minds to bounce ideas off. That would have made her life much easier if she had a pack to work with.

The little kid inside her wanted to join them. The little, innocent kid that felt the pang in her chest pounding to earn their trust and fly with them.

But for now, she was missing her partner. Her head pushed the feelings away. Better to be logical in this moment. She glanced back up towards her mountain, curious where he was hiding out.

Concerned about how the riders in front of her could be lying to her.

"Listen," She paused for a moment as she tried to order the words properly. "I'm not going to try chasing you off again anytime soon; but I need to go check on my dragon."

Astrid leaned closer to Hiccup to say something to him quietly.

"Right, okay," He nodded to Raegan in response, not turning to acknowledge his adviser. "We would love to come to an understanding here later."

Raegan nodded back at him, a little awkwardly before she started to half turn towards the seclusion of the woods again. She kept her head turned sideways to watch their movements out of the corner of her eye. Astrid was making wild gestures, speaking very quietly under her breath, and Fishlegs looked a little giddy, but the rest were harder to read. Hiccup just tried to calm them all down.

As soon as Raegan was out of ear and eyeshot, she climbed up the nearest tree and bounded between them a few times. She had just lifted up her hands to her mouth to call out for her companion when he swooped down and grabbed her by her upper arms to fly her back to the closure of their cave. He must've broken some speeding records there.

They landed a little awkwardly on the ledge before the entrance, with her three thousand pound brother standing over her and sniffing her stomach and face to make sure she was fine. He was whining the whole time, fussy about how badly her plan had backfired. He nudged her side a few times to try and get her to stand up.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, Mow," She did not blame him. She would certainly have reacted the same way. She reached out her arms and hugged his huge head to her chest, nursing the pang there that had amplified after speaking with the newcomers, "I'm sorry I freaked you out there. I did not mean for it to turn out like that."

It was her turn to look him over, running her hands down from his face to check over his chin and then the undersides of his wings and tail.

He seemed okay.

He was fine.

"They didn't do anything to you, did they?"

He roared back at her in his inside voice, going back to nudging her side. It was his version of hugging.


	28. Vertrauen

Raegan and Mowgli spent the rest of the day on their own. Raegan was a little exhausted from social interaction, so it was fairly easy to avoid the noisy riders on the other side of the island for the last hours of daylight. Mowgli didn't complain when they went to bed earlier than usual.

Raegan explained to him the best she could.

The other riders, on the surface at least, seemed pretty decent and all. Enough that it made Raegan want to give them a  _chance_. Worst case scenario, they turned out to be lying to try and capture her or her dragon and Raegan still might be able to escape from that.

She knew this island far better than they did, so she might be able to use that in case of emergency.

Raegan was planning in the back of her mind to leave the newcomers alone for a few days. Maybe from her absolute lack of social experience and a little anxiety on the subject, so she decided to go hunting to clear her mind.

The wild boars generally flocked to a certain section of the island now, and Raegan knew they were still a fair set away from where the riders were making camp. She was in the middle of slicing open the product of her hunt, Mowgli waiting by and munching on some of the juicer bits Raegan had tossed him when a voice cut out and made her hand slip.

"Hey! Raegan!"

She was already halfway up and crouched, ready to defend herself, when she finally noticed who had called her.

Hiccup and Astrid were just swooping down on their mounts, looking friendly enough.

Mowgli began to growl and show his teeth, raising up and curling his back as he prepared for a fight, but Raegan calmed him down as quick as she could, "Hey, hey, Mow, it's okay. They just want to talk."

He closed his mouth just fine, but his purple eyes remained narrowed at the newcomers. His talons curled over his small pile of food as though someone would try to take it from him. He took a step or two closer to his rider in case he needed to get to her quickly.

"Good morning," Hiccup said to her, looking a little uncomfortable.

It took Raegan a few seconds to realize it was because her lower arms and hands were coated with blood and there was a dead pig sitting between them with his guts spilling out.

Raegan switched her knife to her other hand and waved awkwardly. She tried to send a smile their way, but the effect can be lost when you're cutting into your breakfast like she was. "Sorry. You wanna join me for breakfast?"

Hiccup was looking away from the meal, "I think we're good, thanks."

Raegan nearly rolled her eyes and said a little quieter, "It's not like you're going to eat it like this. I'm not a savage; we're going to cook it first." She wasn't actually offended, however. She was fine either way.

"We'd love to join you for breakfast," Astrid spoke up, giving Hiccup a hard look.

There was a slight lull in the conversation as Raegan moved on to prepare their meal: cleaning it up, dividing up the best pieces of meat, and getting rid of the useless parts.

"So, did you guys sleep well out there?" Raegan asked to fill the air. "It can get kinda cold at night."

"We built a fire," Astrid explained, hopping from her Nadder's back. "And we had our dragons to help keep us warm."

"Actually, that's what we wanted to talk to you about," Hiccup said, getting over his squeamishness and sitting himself on a nearby rock so they could talk more leveled. "About the local dragons here."

Raegan glanced up at him and nodded as she continued her work to show she was listening.

"Tuffnut says he saw something last night," Hiccup went on as he eyed her up for a reaction. "A huge, terrifying dragon he didn't recognize."

Raegan snickered, "Oh, I'm sure he did."

"You know what he saw?" Astrid looked a bit surprised, "We thought he was messing with us."

Raegan briefly thought about what would be so unbelievable about seeing a scary dragon in the night. Seemed like a pretty common thing around here, but she let it go.

"I don't know what they're called," Raegan told them as she finished up some of her work. "But there is a," She cut off as she tried to think of the word. "Nocturnal. Only comes out at night?"

"Nocturnal?" Hiccup offered up an unfamiliar sound.

"Is that the word for it?" Raegan gave him an appreciative look and then gathered her the meat she was using in the one pan she owned. "Yeah, but they're really friendly. You don't have to worry about them."

"There's more than one?" Hiccup asked.

Raegan laughed again, turning towards the nearest stream of fresh water to wash her hands, "Maybe a few."

Once all of the blood was cleared off, she walked on back to the group, gathering a few spare sticks along the way.

"Do you think you could show it to us?" Hiccup asked excitedly while Raegan pieced together the beginnings of a campfire.

"Well, they're kinda sleeping right now," Raegan told him. "But maybe later tonight when they're out and about." She stared down at the pile of wood in front of her, and then to the other riders, "Could you light this for me?"

"Huh," Hiccup looked down as though he only just noticed it. "Oh, yeah." He turned to his dragon, "Toothless, - - blast."

The black dragon peered down at the pile of wood before opening up his mouth a sending out a tiny burst of purple that exploded upon contact with the wood, setting it on fire.

"Thanks," Raegan said to the dragon, before she pointed over her shoulder. "Mowgli is better at cooling things down than setting them on fire."

"Yeah," Astrid spoke up as she helped begin to cook the different pieces of meat over the fire. "We've seen a few Woolly Howls in our travels, but never any that were as friendly as yours."

This must have been saying something because Mowgli was really uncharacteristically grouchy to them. Probably bitter that the Nadder got the jump on him and carried Raegan off his back. Not to mention the black dragon was probably a bit faster than he was.

Mowgli had a bit of an ego.

"It must have been difficult to train him," Hiccup brought up curiously.

"Only a little," Raegan shrugged off, turning her food over in the flames. "We were both pretty young and- -"  _I saved his life and we escaped dragon hunters together_. She gritted her teeth together for a second and stared intently at her work, hoping it wasn't obvious. "You know how little kids are," She joked, light in nature.

Once she was satisfied with the meal she had, she handed it over to Hiccup who took it after a second's hesitation.

"What about your dragon?" Raegan asked, tilting her head almost a full fifty degrees to the side as she admired the dragon's handsome scales. "I've never seen one of those before."

"Yeah," Hiccup turned to smile at his companion as well, "Toothless really is one of a kind. We haven't been able to run into any other Night Furies before."

"Night Furies," Raegan repeated curiously. It wasn't a name she'd ever heard of before. As far as dragon names go, it wasn't too bad. She never appreciated vikings naming certain species 'Terrible' or 'Hideous' or the like. It felt rude. "Did you find him when he was a baby or something?"

Hiccup furrowed his eyebrows and answered right before he took his first bite, "No, why do you ask?"

" _Toothless_  doesn't seem," How to put it. "Quite a fitting name."

"Oh," Hiccup laughed a little. "No, I think it is," He looked over to his friend and nudged his shoulder. "C'mon, bud."

Toothless opened up his mouth on cue, showing off his many triangle teeth ready to tear into his meals, before in the next second they vanished with a slightly slurping-sheathing sound.

Raegan couldn't help the gasp that passed through her throat, and she put her food down to stand and take a few steps closer. Then she remembered her manners and looked back at Hiccup for permission.

"Sure, go ahead," Hiccup seemed to find this just as amusing.

Raegan held out one hand before she moved any closer. Her palm facing down towards her feet and the back of her fingers facing the Night Fury as she waited for his move.

He tilted his head just a bit in response before he moved closer. Raegan knelt down to meet him and rubbed her hand on over his head. She marveled at the striking similarities between him and her own partner. The bones under the rough scales. The texture was different, but the shape was extraordinary.

Even his tongue was quite similar, despite the different color.

"Well, aren't you just beautiful?" She swooned over him as she turned to examine his smoother chin. "No, I was still right. You're still a growing boy."

"What do you mean?" Hiccup asked now, watching the interaction intently.

"He's still pretty young," Raegan pointed out one of the most theoretical things she'd learned from, funnily enough, spending time with the nocturnal natives of the island. There were so many that she began looking for the differences between them and the only thing she could come up with was that the growing spines under their chins changed as they aged. The older they got, the more spines and more complex they got. "I think it'll be several years before he's fully mature."

"How can you tell?" Astrid asked, walking closer as Raegan pointed out where she was looking.

The younger girl explained the best she could. That it took practice to read properly.

She was a little surprised when the teeth suddenly came back as though he'd grown a full set in an instant. Then she laughed it off.

Raegan glanced over her shoulder at her pouting friend, "How come you don't have cool retractable teeth, mister?"

Mowgli whined back like something caught between a bark and a howl, turning his back on her with his nose in the air. He snorted a cloud of mist out in his pettiness.

Raegan suddenly felt giddy from being around other people who loved dragons as she did, and she let the tension in her shoulders begin to fall away. She put up a hand as if to keep Mowgli from hearing her and stage whispered to Toothless over her shoulder, "He's just upset because he's not the fastest dragon on the island anymore."

Toothless gave out a hardy breath that sounded like a laugh, and Mowgli whined his deep howling bark again.

"Does that mean you're okay to let us stay?"

The question somehow caught her off guard even though it had been all she was thinking about last night and early this morning. She let out her breath through her nose as she rubbed her hands over the beautiful Night Fury's friendly face.

"I've," Raegan looked over to her best friend, and Mowgli glanced back at her, all signs of his discontent left for a curious puppy expression. " _We've_  been alone for a while. I don't want it to be like that forever."

When she looked back at the hopeful looks on Hiccup and Astrid's faces, she let all her hostility fade away into a deep part of her stomach. Gone.

"Don't make me regret trusting you," She said it as a request, not a threat. "Please."

Hiccup's face lit up like fireworks and he grinned a set of crooked white teeth at her, "You won't regret this, Raegan. Thank you!"

"We should probably go tell the guys," Astrid didn't try to hide her appreciation either. "They might have already started putting together their - - for the base."

_Plans_! That was the word Raegan was missing yesterday!

The girl went back to her breakfast and began to eat it heartily.

"Would you like to join us?"

Raegan must have missed the implied invitation the first time, so she looked up a little surprised when they turned to ask her directly.

"Uhh, okay!" Raegan smiled at them and lifted up a hand in a swirling motion. Mowgli hopped to her side and let his face fall into a more neutral setting. "Thanks," Raegan said to the other riders in return before climbing aboard her partner with the precision only found after years of time together.

Mowgli followed a dragon's length behind them at the beginning of their short flight. Neither of them were used to flying with a pack so much with other people, but it warmed Raegan on the inside when Astrid glanced over at her and  _smiled_.

When was the last time she saw a friendly human face directed at her?


	29. Beginnings of team bonding

Raegan and Mowgli landed in the clearing with Hiccup and Astrid, which made the four vikings on the ground look up at them. Fishlegs came running over to meet them while Snotlout followed at a more leisurely pace. The twins stayed put.

"Guys, you're back!" The largest of the vikings said eagerly, holding what looked like a shield in front of himself as though it were a plate. His face dropped ever so slightly when he spotted Raegan with them, but he still had a hesitant smile on his face.

"Astrid and I talked to Raegan and she agreed to let us stay on the island," Hiccup broke the news to the two in front of them as he stepped down from his dragon's saddle.

Fishlegs looked like Christmas came early, "Really? That's amazing! I've already been putting together my ideas for the base." The example was built carefully on the back of the shield he was holding.

Raegan got off of Mowgli's back slowly and looked over the model in front of her with interest. She was amazed at the detail he put into making a rock model of their home. It actually looked really nice. She did stay several paces behind Hiccup and Astrid, her hands behind her back and rocking back and forth on her toes; but it was still better than spending the morning in the woods as she usually did.

"Hiccup," Snotlout brought up loudly. "Tell Fishface that we're not going to put make a base without my 'S.'"

"Guys," Hiccup looked significantly less happy about this. "I already told you; we're each going to make a design and then we'll vote on it."

Fishlegs looked down on his little model, "I know, I just thought I'd show you now." Then he looked over Hiccup's shoulder at Raegan and her Woolly Howl, "Hey, Raegan, what do you think about having a - - garden with a hot mud bath? You know like a place for rest and relaxation after a long day's work?"

Honestly, that sounded nice and Raegan was about to tell him as much when Mowgli stuffed his face closer to get a better look at the model himself.

He knocked the shield and dislodged a few of the pieces in his curiosity, making Raegan turn on him in her embarrassment.

"Mowgli," She huffed at him, putting her hands on her hips like a disappointed mother. "Come on, be easy!"

Mowgli looked at her unimpressed, smacking his lips a bit as he moaned back. He didn't seem deterred by the reaction. Punk.

Fishlegs was a little busy putting the pieces back together like they were his lifeline, but he did manage to find the time to ask, "What language is that?"

Raegan had never been asked this before. The vikings she had been sailing with years ago just corrected her words and told her what she was saying was wrong. Fishlegs seemed  _interested_.

"English," Raegan answered, and Mowgli pressed the side of his head against her torso as he eyed up the unfamiliar human in front of him.

Hiccup walked on over from where he was and tried his best to mimic the word she said, failing spectacularly. Raegan giggled a bit and then repeated it for him, "English."

"You're not from the Archipelago are you?" Fishlegs asked her.

Raegan shook her head, "No, I arrived here on accident six years ago."

"Really? Where are you from?" Astrid asked, joining them with Snotlout.

"The United States of America?" Raegan replied hesitantly, resting her hand on Mowgli's head as he sniffed Fishlegs experimentally. She doubted they'd heard of it.

"I've never heard of it," Hiccup told her, hand on his chin.

Shocker.

"Are there many Woolly Howls there?" Fishlegs asked, thirty for more information. "Is that where you found. . ." He cut off when he realized he didn't know the dragon's name.

"No," Raegan shook her head. "I found Mowgli a little while later and we've been living here ever since. I wouldn't know which way to begin looking."

This was really the first time she thought about going home in a while. She didn't think it was very possible anyway. She wouldn't even know where to begin, and she enjoyed not having to go to school or worry about college. She didn't think her mother would be too happy of suddenly having a three or four thousand pound dragon moving in.

She couldn't remember a lot of her mother, really.

"What? Don't you miss your family?" Snotlout asked her, arms crossed and skeptical.

Raegan rested her hand on one of the pockets of her fur coat, and answered with one word, "Yeah."

There was something of a pause.

"We've never been able to train a Woolly Howl before," Fishlegs repeated something Hiccup had said earlier. Then he ran over to his Gronckle quickly to pull something out of the saddlebag, "Do you think you could help us fill in some of the extra pages on them in our Book of Dragons?" He returned to the group with a large bound book with something like the outline of a dragon on the cover.

He flipped through the many pages quickly until he got to a section near the middle, then he turned it around to show Raegan.

The drawings looked accurate enough to her dragon, but she wasn't really able to accurately access the book because of the foreign letters filling up the page. She blinked at the information in front of her and then back at her new friend.

"Uhh, what would you like to know?" She asked him.

"What's his top speed? What's his shot limit? Is he afraid of eels? What's his wing span?" The questions were shot out fairly quickly for her to reply quite right, so she just stared at him for a few seconds. A deer in the headlights look on her face.

She kinda wanted to see what all the book had to say on her dragon's species, but it was fairly embarrassing to say she didn't know how to read. . .

"Slow down, Fishlegs," Hiccup told the blond. "I'm sure we'll have all the time in the world to answer those questions; but for now, I'd love to see how fast he can go."

Raegan wasn't sure exactly how she could measure her dragon's speed like they were talking; but the next thing out of Hiccup's mouth, she was all for participating in.

"What do you say, Raegan," Hiccup said. "Are you and Mowgli up for a race?"

She almost laughed over his pronunciation of Mowgli's name, but she nodded her head happily anyway. She would love to race Toothless and Hiccup.

"We'd be happy to," She answered him, and Mowgli gave his own sort of huff of agreement.

Toothless barked back at the Woolly Howl eagerly and then looked back at his rider.

"Are you sure we should be racing at a time like this?" Astrid asked Hiccup, "I think we should be focusing on planning our base."

"We've been planning all day," Hiccup reasoned back. "I think a little break would be good for us."

Astrid shook her head at his argument, and then put her arm out to pet her Nadder, "Well, you're not leaving me and Stormfly out."

"I wouldn't have it any other way. So, where to?" Hiccup asked, turning around to look around the clearing in his thought.

Raegan thought as well; she knew the island better than he did, "There's a sea stack on the other side of the island, where I left Snotlout yesterday," She gave the boy in question an apologetic look as she pointed to the general direction. "We could race there and back."

"Perfect," Hiccup smiled at it, then he glanced over to the side of the clearing where Ruffnut and Tuffnut were scheming. "Should we invite the twins?"

"I don't think we should leave them alone," Astrid told him, arms crossed and eyes narrowed at the two.

Raegan couldn't see exactly why they couldn't be left alone, but she didn't speak up about it. She was a little excited about trying out in a race with them.

While Hiccup left to go invite the twins over, Astrid leaned down to talk to Raegan.

"No cheating this time, alright?"

The only thing Raegan could see her referring to was the time she and Mowgli froze Toothless' tail fin so she could ground them.

In return, Raegan just gave her a smile, "No promises."

* * *

In reality, Raegan was a fair player. She hopped on Mowgli's back and lined up with the Dragon Riders facing north. They had Fishlegs count them off because he was on the naturally slowest dragon and needed any advantage he could get.

Everyone got ready on their dragons, even Snotlout who was a little grumpy about being semi-friendly with Raegan after she got the better of him yesterday.

"On your marks," Fishlegs called out.

Raegan leaned down so her belly was against Mowgli's back.

"Get set. . ."

Raegan looked over at her primary rivals: Hiccup and Toothless, and they looked back at her with grins.

She was giddy.

"Go!"

Mowgli's strong wings swept up and launched them into the air, just a hair's breadth behind the Night Fury. She was actually just ahead of Stormfly and Snotlout's Nightmare.

In the distance, she could hear the bee-like flapping wings of the Gronckle while she urged Mowgli to fly faster.

When going at top speeds like this, the island seems to shrink a bit and it was only twenty seconds before they reached the end of the island and soared over the final stretch of the water in front of the sea-stack she had directed them to.

Raegan knew this was the biggest problem they had. Mowgli could outrun nearly any dragon they faced in one straight stretch, but his larger body made it more difficult to make the sharp turns of smaller, more agile dragons.

Where they were about tied with Toothless on the final stretch, they got a few paced behind as they made the sharp turn on their way back.

Raegan honestly did not expect to win first place in this little race, but she is happy to say that she was just on Toothless' tail when they crossed the line in second.

Spending the day with other humans whom she could talk and communicate with on a more personal level was exhilarating, made her more hyper and happy and excited. Acting her age. She and Fishlegs ended up talking about the different dragons they'd seen. He told her stories of the Death Song they'd run into just a few days ago and the Typhoomerang: the first new dragon they'd discovered since their war with the creatures had stopped.

From the snide remarks that Snotlout sent their way, Raegan was able to piece together the history of how Hiccup stopped a cruel dragon queen named the Red Death and released all of the dragons under her to come live on Berk.

She liked the portrait they painted in her head of Berk. A village of humans and dragons living together and working together.

She felt the pang in her chest ease at a new taste of hope on the horizon.

Fishlegs was extraordinarily excited when Hiccup mentioned the setting sun to them a few hours later.

"Do you think you can show us that nocturnal species you mentioned?"

"There's a  _nocturnal_  species here?" Fishlegs gasped, flipping through the Book of Dragons to show off the very few other species that behaved this way.

"You gotta be kidding me," Ruffnut's gravely voice shot up from the distance as she listened in. "You're telling me he was telling the truth?"

At Raegan's confirmation, Tuffnut rubbed it in his sister's face.

"You got that right, sis," He boasted, chin in the air. "Looks like  _I_  am declared the winner."

"Not until I see some concrete evidence," Ruff shook her head and marched towards her Zippleback. Once she was on the right head she looked back over to where Raegan was lounging. "You! Shorty! What are you waiting for? We gotta dragon to go see!"

Raegan raised an eyebrow at the command but complied anyway, getting on Mow's back to lead them to the caves that the small dragons were usually found in.


	30. Meet and greet

"Amazing."

"They look sort of like Terrible Terrors, but bigger and meaner."

Raegan was unsure what made them look 'meaner' to Astrid. The creatures were never anything but friendly to her and Mowgli. She even knew that the little beasties enjoyed playing fetch and guilted her into throwing sticks for them for hours on end. It would be enough to throw a stick for one dragon until they got tired, but throwing for a hundred was exhausting.

"And you said they're nocturnal?" Hiccup asked, "They've only ever come out at night?"

"I've only ever seen or heard them at night," Raegan answered, smiling fondly at a few of the nearest ones as they fluttered around her.

Raegan had managed to convince the riders to wait outside the mouth of the dragons' cave, just as the sun began to set. It only took a few minutes for the colony to emerge from their nest naturally. Raegan gave no explanation for waiting outside the cave entrance instead of leading them inside, a little embarrassed from her. . . discomfort in dark and enclosed caverns like this one was.

The enormous and empty black mass here was  _unnerving_  to her.

As said before, she was fine with  _her_  cave. It was not very large and impossible to get lost in and was well lit and comfortable and  _hers_. Familiar.

Mowgli almost bounced around in front of the cave in his excitement to see his friends. They were probably his closest companions aside from Raegan herself, and he let out little barks of greeting to try and draw them out. His tail was wagging behind him as he wiggled here and there. His actions made the few minutes everyone waited easier to deal with.

No less awkward, but it pushed aside the lingering distrust from some of the riders. His happiness was genuine and  _amusing_.

"Hey, check it out!" Tuffnut exclaimed from the tall neck of his Zippleback. He was already very smug from being correct in whatever bet he and his sister had made on the existence of the species, so he pointed to the small form of the alpha sniffing curiously at the Night Fury near the center of their group, "There's a white one!"

Raegan didn't know the word for Alpha in Norse, but she assumed Hiccup could put it together himself as the colony began to put on their unique show. She didn't have to explain.

The dragons began to flocked together, most likely to form a larger cloud in their classic default shape.

They really enjoyed pulling together to form a larger version of themselves, mostly for protection from other predators, but they also did the same for other species.

Raegan knew during certain times of the year Changewings prowled the island, a particularly aggressive breed that hunted in a pack; and the dragons often clouded together to scare the pride away from some of the other, friendlier, species.

The island's guardian angels.

Who, ironically, only came out in the darkness of night and formed large menacing black shapes in the sky to give their enemies nightmares.

But angels nonetheless.

"Whoa!" Hiccup let out the breath as he watched them dance around in the sky.

"What are they doing?" Astrid asked as the riders began to spot several clumps joining together for their formation.

The dragons seemed to be shaking things up a bit, flying around together as they tried to decide what form to take. Raegan could hear the white one's call and screech out in the darkness, and she could vaguely see the beginnings of their body in the light of the moon.

Raegan giggled a little as they took on one she hadn't seen before.

The small creatures were wonderful judges of character, based on how they protected friendlier dragons and scared away the occasional aggressive neighboring packs or passing ships in the distance, and she couldn't help but approve as they took on the form of a very elegant nocturnal dragon among them.

"Is that- -?" Fishlegs squinted at the sky as they watched their first show.

"Toothless?" Hiccup was grinning at the sight of the Night Fury in the sky. His mount's bright green eyes were nearly all black from the enlarged pupils Toothless had. He enjoyed the flattery.

Mowgli barked at them, flying up on his own to push his way through what would be the center of the design's chest. Raegan let out a laugh as he did so, knowing full well what he was playing at.

The smaller dragons scattered out of their path and disrupted the image, a few of Mowgli's best playmates circled him and barked greetings. Mowgli let out a howling whine that resembled a spoiled and entitled dog wanting attention.

Their friendly neighbors were not ones to disappoint and Raegan watched as their leader called out a new order, to show off their skills imitating the form of a Woolly Howl.

It would take a keen eye to spot the humanoid body they etched onto the back of their masterpiece, something Raegan was sure had only been added in the last two or three years here. Flattering.

When Mowgli swooped back down to where the Dragon Riders were waiting, holding his head high to gloat, Raegan could hear Hiccup talking quickly with Fishlegs in their enthusiasm. Both of the young men were making wild motions with their hands as they went back and forth on the new dragon they had never seen before.

It was hard for Raegan to keep up with that, so she settled for thumping Mowgli on the back of his head for showing off as he did. Like the amused sibling she was.

It was only after a moment's silence as all the riders watched the skies that she could translate what was being said about the small dragons.

"I say we call them," Fishlegs brought up, his hand was in the air as he revealed the name Raegan never thought to come up with. "Night Terrors."

"Hey!" Tuffnut disagreed. "I saw them first, so  _I_  get to name them!"

"Actually," Hiccup cut in diplomatically. "It was Raegan who saw them first. She's known them for years."

Several sets of eyes went to the youngest of the group, who had no care for putting an idea into the ring.

She held up her hands in a 'Don't Shoot' formation to pass the baton off to someone else. Personally, she liked 'Night Terrors.' That would be easy for her to remember.

It was easy to confess that the only name she had come up for the identical little creatures with was calling the alpha 'Snowman' for their pearly scales. Of course, she realized a while later that Snowman was a female. After so long of being away from a society that assigned different genders specific colors and would be outraged by a more masculine name for something like her, Raegan didn't see feel it as enormous issue.

Snowman was a cutie, and that was just fine.

Snotlout was the first to address the nearly forgotten language barrier by attempting to repeat the name. Norse was a much harsher sounding language and specific words and sounds seemed very hard to pronounce for them. It was still funny to hear the accent they had when they said her name.

Snowman was very smooth, two syllables, no sharp sounds.

It sounded wrong coming from their mouths.

Raegan did not argue when Tuffnut loudly protested the name (despite it being a name for an individual instead of a species). Even when, out of all of them, he was the best with new sounds and mimicking noises (being fluent in  _Spanish_  of all things).

When the choice came back to her, she shrugged it off the the viking crew with an indifferent smile.

Tuffnut dropped down from his dragon's neck and examined the sky as though he were a work of art (which you could argue, it was). "Let's think about this logically," He rubbed his chin and looked it up and down as he paced for a few seconds. "They come out at night, and they're terrifying. . . Terror of the night." Then snapped his fingers to attention, announcing he had an idea, "I've got it!" His arms spread wide to take in the entire night sky and he called out, " _Smidvarg_  and the Gang!"

Vikings were  _excellent_  at naming things.

Raegan's eyebrows brushed together as she stared at the blond man's back.

Hiccup crossed his arms, " _And_  Night Terrors it is!"

* * *

Raegan spent the rest of the night flying with Hiccup and Fishlegs as the newly named Night Terrors went about their business for several hours after Snotlout and the twins left to return to camp, and  _Astrid_  left to keep an eye on them. Raegan told them what all she knew about the Terrors: their incentive to protect, their feeding habits, etc.

Hiccup was especially interested in the way they formed around their alpha. Him talking about the behavior taught her the Norse word for the position, and she told him about the times the Changewings were scared off by them and how they took their job as guardians seriously all on their own.

Raegan was filled with glee from the afternoon spent with them.

But, just like anyone, eventually she got tired and started having trouble keeping her eyes open to talk to the two knowledge craving dragon-lovers flying beside her. At first they didn't notice.

And then Raegan began to nod off, and then jerk her head back up, and then nod off again.

And then Mowgli began lagging a little behind.

Hiccup noticed first, pulling back Toothless to the slowly gliding Woolly Howl a few paces behind them.

The large Strike Class was still a teenager in his dragon years, but close enough to full size that Raegan could easily fall asleep on his back and not fear of slipping off the side. Mowgli noticed almost immediately that she was dozing off and smoothed out his flying to keep her comfortably on his back.

Upon seeing Hiccup join them, Mowgli barked softly at the rider as Toothless and he flew side by side. Raegan was happily snoozing with her chest pressed to Mowgli's back and her mop of relatively dirty hair bunched up in a few tangles over her face.

At first, Raegan didn't hear her name get called, but after a few times she shot up from the dragon's back and blinked wildly in confusion. There was a crease in her cheek from the wrappings on her forearm she had used as a pillow.

"Hey!" Hiccup looked a little caught between amused and guilty at the sight. "You fell asleep," It almost sounded like a question, like the thought of falling asleep on a dragon's back was the most wild possibility to him. "I didn't realize it was getting so late."

Raegan yawned wide, rubbing small fists into her eyes and making her seem nearly half her age for a moment or two as she discarded the sleep stuck to her. Her head was spinning for a few seconds as she worked double time to try and translate the words he was using.

So the Dragon Rider was stuck staring at her for a few seconds before she caught up.

Like Hiccup, the girl seemed a little on the small side for a viking (or at least like he was when he was her age). Though he supposed she might not be a viking in the first place. She spoke a strange language; was from someplace far, far way; it would be easy for him to guess that her life would be very different if she had never been separated from her family.

Hiccup felt a little guilty for asking her so many questions about the island and the native dragons on their flight, but the girl had not complained once. It would be hard to guess just by looking at her, but she seemed smaller than Astrid or Ruffnut were at her age, a fact that made him begin feeling protective.

She had been alone for many years, with no one but her dragons for company or protection.

Raegan waved a hand at him as she took a few seconds to wake herself up.

It crossed his mind for a moment, she could very well be a hiccup like him. A runt of the litter.

"I think it's time we head back," He announced louder while Fishlegs pulled back to see what the holdup was. "We all should get some sleep."

Raegan yawned again.

It probably wasn't especially late, but she had gotten into a habit of going to bed soon, if not immediately after, the sun disappeared so she could wake up in the earliest parts of the morning light.

Optimize her time, you could say, considering all the work she ever needed to get done on the island had to be done alone. It was easier with light.

Raegan felt her cheeks heat up a bit at falling asleep, but she pushed her embarrassment away the farthest it could go. She was sleepy. Who can fault her for that?

"Would you like to camp with us tonight?" Hiccup asked her as the three turned back towards the direction of the rest of the riders were stationed.

Raegan thought about it. She didn't really want to. She liked her cave. Her warm piles of fur kept her warm and toasty and the thought of sleeping out in the cold was not appealing. Of course, she had just been caught falling asleep on her dragon's back, but that is neither here nor there. A nest is always preferred.

Raegan shook her head at the Night Fury's rider, "I'm going to head back to my home for the night." She pointed her thumb towards the general direction of the mountain her cave was stationed at. "But I will join you for breakfast?"

"We'd love to have you," Fishlegs invited her over as though they were already neighbors with a home and dinner table for guests. He still managed to squeal in his excitement over it all.

"We're probably going to dig more into the base's design tomorrow," Hiccup nodded at her as they came within eyesight of the campfire the other riders had set. "The Night Terrors have given me an idea I think will solve all of our planning problems."

Raegan was stifling another yawn; her head bobbed up and down.

"And I would like you to be a part of that planning, Raegan," Hiccup told her, which made her look up. "This island was your home first, and I would hate for us to change it without your approval."

Raegan thanked him earnestly before they said their final goodbyes, and she broke off to head to her cave.

The very idea that there was a human being on the island that cared about what she thought. To say she was touched would be an understatement.


	31. Breakfast

The next morning, Raegan gathered up her best basket and flew down to the beach. She hadn't seen Percy in a while. It was very likely that the dragon was worried about her from the incident on the beach a few days ago, but he was far too skittish to come on land to investigate.

He must have been angry with her for scaring him like she did, or terrified that she had been hurt, because he approached the shoreline as soon as Mowgli touched down. Raegan hopped off her dragon's back and put her basket down so she could run to hug the sea dweller.

The Tide Glider quickly nudged her in several places along her belly and torso and sniffed her up and down several times before he was satisfied that she was alive and not gravely injured. Then, as though a switch had been flipped, huffed at her and spewed some misty air into her face in retaliation.

Raegan's eyes scrunched up at the sudden mess soaking her, and she rubbed her hands over her face to clear it off.

"Don't pout,  _mister_."

In all honesty, it took a lot of sweet words and apologizing to get him back on her side. The sounds of Mowgli splashing in the water a little ways down was not helping the sincerity of her words.

He closed his eyes and turned away from her, nose in the air, and mumbling incomprehensible sounds under his breath. It took several pets and snuggles and promises of special berries he loved (and couldn't find in his natural habitat) before he had forgiven her.

"Wanna help me catch some fish?" Raegan asked him as sweetly as possible.

Percy's snout was long enough that she could wrap her arms around it and hug his face to her chest. Like a Monstrous Nightmare. It was a little hard for him to say no with her attached to him like that, cheek pressed against the bridge of his nose.

So she won him over.

Raegan usually woke up in the earliest parts of the morning.

The early bird catches the worm, and all that.

So, she spent the first few hours of the day catching enough fish to fill her entire basket. She wanted to do something kind for the Dragon Riders. She wanted to get them breakfast and win over their mounts by feeding them all they could eat.

One basket of fish was not enough to feed seven people and six dragons. But every bit would help, she was sure. She was a little cold from spending all the time near the water, and there was a great deal of sand covering her boots that she hated; but it was well worth it.

The sun was rising in the sky and the basket was not too heavy for her to lift.

A perfect fishing day.

She gave back a few of the fish to the Glider to say thanks. Though it kind of defeated the purpose (since he was the one who caught them in the first place), she wanted to do  _something_  as thanks to him.

Then she gave a few to Mowgli to hold him off from devouring the entire basket; and  _then_ , finally, they were on their way back to the Riders' campsite for a proper breakfast.

Mowgli swooped down to circle the camp for a second before he set down the basket he was carrying. All of them were awake and moving around in some way or the other. Some being productive, like Astrid gathering some wood for what looked like the fire; and some being less so, like Snotlout who seemed to be having a shouting match with his indifferent and distracted dragon off to the side.

Raegan gave Mowgli a little tap on the head when he began to nose through the basket they'd brought.

"Come on, Mow; sharing is caring," She shook a finger at him, and he slowly backed away.

Hiccup was the first to greet her. Astrid followed him soon after.

"Good morning, Raegan," He greeted her. He looked at the basket. "What's this?"

"Breakfast," She answered him, pulling open the flap at the top to reveal it being filled to the brim with mackerel.

It was the equivalent to standing out in the middle of the market and shouting "free money" at the top of your lungs. The rest of the riders rushed forward to get in on the action and take their share (and in the cases of some, even more).

Raegan managed to grab two for herself as everyone else nose dived into the bin.

Hiccup was a little amused by the sight, but Raegan had earned herself some points from the less friendly Riders. He grabbed some for himself and his dragon.

"You didn't have to do this," He shook his head at how many she had brought with her. "It must have taken you hours to catch all this."

It didn't.

"Not when you know where to go," Raegan said, moving towards their fire as everyone began to cook their little feast.

It was fun to watch as all the vikings turned to toss half of their grab into the mouths of their dragons. The Zippleback caught them nimbly, without fighting over which head ate what (like the common sight in the wild). Toothless unsheathed his teeth to take the pieces offered to him and gobble them up.

Astrid took the time to thank her for bringing them food.

"This is a nice basket," Fishlegs commented, as he studied it. "Did you make it yourself?"

Raegan shook her head as she held her fish over the fire, "I visit a few markets here and there whenever I need something I can't get here."

She almost turned red at the memory of the last basket she tried to craft on her own. It was pitiful.

"Where do you live?" Astrid asked her, glancing off into the general direction she and Mowgli flew off at the end of each day.

Raegan hesitated a bit.

It wasn't like she didn't  _trust_  these people. But trust goes in levels and they only  _just_  met. It would be rude to not tell her anything, right? But Raegan didn't have to give many details.

Though they could probably find it fairly easily if they really wanted to.

"We have a little cave in the mountain over there we like to sleep in," Raegan answered them honestly, pointing to the snow-topped mountain towering over the treeline.

"Well," Hiccup started, swallowing a bite of his fish and beginning to shift around on his seat before pulling out a large parchment with writing on it. "We've put together a few ideas for our base."

Raegan had noticed the gray outlines in the large clearing. It seems they'd spent most of the morning rolling large rocks together to mimic the outline of their huts, a better way of telling where what would go before it was set in stone. No pun intended.

Hiccup held up his plans to show her.

She couldn't read the little notes pulling off from the different designs, but she could still see the main picture. It looked great. Not the same boring, copy-and-paste buildings she came to associate with vikings. They were unique, somewhat asymmetrical. The shot was looking down on the base, With Hiccup talking his way through it and explaining the different sections with small bridges connecting them and ziplines all connecting to a larger central clubhouse area.

"This is amazing," Raegan told him honestly as she studied the picture.

She wasn't sure she understood the idea of stables. Wouldn't it make more sense to have each individual dragon just stay with their partner in their hut? But then she remembered that the mischievous Monstrous Nightmare Snotlout rode would probably just set the place on fire over and over. Stables might be a good idea.

It couldn't hurt. This was just fine.

At her smile, it seemed like something clicked with the viking group.

As soon as everyone finished stuffing their faces, they each got up and immediately set to work like a bunch of busy bees. Even the twins, which was the last thing Raegan would expect, directed their Zippleback to collect some more of the larger rocks to begin setting their new huts into stone.

Raegan had initially thought that building the place would take a month or two, but at the rate they got going in one day, they could have it finished as soon as two weeks from now.

"And I was thinking," Raegan was a little surprised that Hiccup continued talking after she gave the go-ahead, but she turned to listen to him instantly. "Since we're going to be sharing the island, I was thinking that we could share the outpost too."

Share the outpost?

Was she, she was going to live here too?

He held up the designs again and pointed to a bare section of the land that she hadn't noticed at first, "There's room for another hut here if you'd ever want to move in on this side of the island."

Move in. . .

She glanced at her partner, and Mowgli nudged her side, as happy and content as can be. She liked her cave. It had been her home for a long time. How would it feel for her to leave it?

"I don't know how to build stuff," She warned him, looking back.

He let out a laugh and Astrid joined his side, " _We_  can help you with that."

In the back of her mind, Raegan absolutely hated the idea of showing off how little she knew about building things (especially since these people seemed like professionals (what did they do? Build a new house every few months?)); but she did want to be included in a group. If she stayed in her cave on the other side of the island they could still work together, but that is some great divide between them.

Her nervous affirmation earned herself a few more smiles, and Astrid immediately got to work leading her to the basics. The older girl directed her to collecting more stones and wood for materials so that Astrid could get it to work herself. At the rate they were working together (Astrid finally being able to command someone who didn't challenge her authority and stubbornly disagree every which way), it was decided Raegan's hut would be beside Fishlegs'. A little more secluded from the rest, but not  _ex_ cluded.


	32. Not a filler chapter. definitely.

It took a few days, but the riders eventually got the outline of the base set up the way they wanted it.

The twins made a hut for themselves matching the deep, beautiful green color of their Zippleback. That was as far as it went. It was very difficult to understand exactly how the hut stayed upright. They spent the majority of their time digging the perfect 'boar pit.' When Raegan asked Astrid what a boar pit was for, the older girl shook her head and didn't bother answering, muttering about the mutton-heads and their ridiculous schemes.

Snotlout made sure to make his hut the tallest and most beautiful of them all. He somehow maneuvered his way to making the beginnings of a crank that could raise and lower his hut as he wanted. The plans described a large tank of water to sit nearby (because Hookfang was the most  _flammable_  of the dragons) in case of emergency, but it would be a while before they got that part down.

The biggest and softest of the vikings made a comfortable secluded relaxation area for him to live in. Fishlegs created a nice rock garden and some lovely spots to sit and look at the pond as they unwind for the day. Raegan enjoyed having a quiet neighbor by her side.

Farther off, Astrid's hut was meant to be heavily armed. Like the base's weaponry or armory or something along those lines. Raegan got the impression that Astrid loved fighting and thrived in the heat of a great battle. Her's was the closest to Hiccups. Literally at his right hand.

Freaking power couple, right there.

Hiccup's hut was nice to look at. Near the middle of the base where he could overlook everything. His was two floors with the bottom decorated with the beginnings of a forge and storage and the upper floor housed his bed and a large chunk of smooth rock for Toothless to sleep on.

Raegan's hut was mostly Astrid's work. Raegan put as much effort into it as the blonde woman did, but the younger of the two didn't have a clue as to what she wanted it to  _be_. It was a basic hut that followed the same guidelines as the others did. Two floors, a bed on the top loft.

Astrid wasn't too sure what to think about the way Raegan put together her bed. She thought it was strange, sleeping on the floor in a bundle of soft furs and things instead of building a proper frame.

No one could say that the power couple weren't curious about what Raegan's home looked like (how a child could put together a safe place like she did and stay there for so long on her own), so Raegan eventually gave in and allowed the two to follow her to her little cave two days after they started building the outpost together. The flight was over in a matter of seconds.

Mowgli dropped down onto the ledge poking out from the entrance of their cave and Raegan hopped off as she pulled open the little door she'd made so long ago. The lights on the inside were nearly out from last night when she slept there last, so she left the door wide open to let some light in as she led the two vikings inside.

No other human had set foot in here since she had claimed it. And who even knew about before that?

Raegan's eyes were immediately drawn to the rickety table pressed to the right wall. Right over it, hanging all over the wall to completely cover the stone, were many of her favorite drawings of dragons. The same ones that prominently featured a posing Woolly Howl (most of his attempts at being regal) and the occasional residents of the island that stuck out to her. On a few of them, Raegan made little notes into the pictures.

'Notes' meaning, she just pointed an arrow at Mowgli's face and made fun of the prideful expressions he made. That, or she made fun of her own art style. Any particularly bad drawing she didn't appreciate or anything like that.

Most of the table was filled up with blank papers she had bought from the markets about a month or so ago, along with a few (she doesn't want to call them pencils, but that's basically what they were) pencils. She had two rocks to keep as paperweights on the days she left her door open to let in fresh air.

There were two baskets hanging around on the left corner by the door that were the homes to the bones and tusks of boars she hadn't made use for and some food that wouldn't immediately go bad, along with a bucket in the corner that housed her man-made tools. She had brought the two vikings to her home because they were curious and she needed to move all of her things back to the base anyway.

All of the walls were lined with furs from her hunts over the years that she would be fine with parting with so that the other riders could have something to sleep on.

She was a little nervous when she noticed Hiccup walking towards the right wall to study the images.

"I didn't know you draw," Astrid said to her, approaching Hiccup's other side.

Raegan's hand went to her pocket, where she rubbed her fingers over the folded picture she liked to keep with her. She simply said, "Yeah."

She was slowly relaxing as they looked through her art, turning her back so she could start to take some of the pelts off the walls and folding them up the best she could into a pile for easy transport.

"Is that a  _Tide Glider_?"

Despite herself, Raegan felt her heart drop into her stomach.

Tide Gliders were  _extremely_  valuable, after all, and rare from how they usually shied away from people as a whole. Raegan had always lived in fear of him being caught and used for his 'mystical properties.' She stood stiffly.

The drawing wasn't like the kinds Fishlegs and Hiccup had in their Book of Dragons. Raegan drew for the beauty of the pictures instead of an explanation or description. She added real-life shading and detail over the scales from a position extremely close. She had been sitting on some rocks by the water's edge, just enjoying the creature's company on a rare warm afternoon.

"How on - - did you manage to get that close to it?" Hiccup asked her, a little shocked.

_That_  was a story she wasn't very keen on stepping into.

"I, umm," She thought about the easiest way she could tell it without spawning more questions. "Well. . ." She turned back to the wall of furs she was retrieving and made her hands useful. "I, sort of, saved him?"

When she turned back around, they were looking at her a little surprised. She wouldn't be able to leave it at that.

"Tide Gliders are pretty valuable," Raegan went on after a second's pause. "Because of their- -" She gestured to her mouth (forgetting the Norse word), pointing and making a small circle with her hand. "Healing saliva." The two riders probably knew that much about them, "So I helped him escape from some dragon hunters."

" _Dragon_  hunters?" Astrid and Hiccup both seemed disgusted by the mere thought, which made Raegan feel even worse for the part she played in it. Her shoulders slouched a bit at the thought.

Mowgli stepped farther into the cave, almost blocking out the light as he did so, and he let out an affectionate little purr. Raegan pushed out her hand to nuzzle his snout, "That's also how Mow and I met."

"How old were you?" Astrid asked her a little quieter.

They must have forgotten her answer a few days ago. Raegan was sure she'd already told them something like this.

"Eight or nine," Raegan answered again, turning her face away because she was sure she wouldn't be able to maintain direct eye contact while talking about something like  _this_.

This revelation seemed to be even more shocking because the riders' faces gaped open at the idea.

"They weren't very smart," Raegan said quickly. "And no one really expects a little kid like me to- -" She thought hard for the right words. "Be able to do something like that."

Mowgli purred some more and nudged her side.

Suddenly very aware of herself, she began working twice as fast to fold up the furs, "But we got away just fine, and Mowgli and I were able to fly to this island. Haven't run into them since."

She was talking way too much.

Babbling.

"So, yeah."

She heard the two vikings shuffle behind her, and then Hiccup began to speak, "I'm sorry you had to do that at such a young age."

Raegan pushed the feelings away.

She was fine now.

She let out a breath through her nose.

"I would offer to introduce you to him," Raegan changed the subject. "But he's got some bad experiences with  _people_."

"He's on the island?" Astrid questioned, suddenly interested with eyes wide.

Raegan scrunched up her eyebrows, "Well, in the bay." Raegan suddenly remembered how she promised him some of his favorite barries. He couldn't get them himself, but she did want to give him a nice treat. "He doesn't exactly like being on land."

"That's who you were looking for," Hiccup realized. "On the beach, the day we caught you."

Raegan glanced at him.

"You kept looking into the ocean like you were searching for something."

"I was worried he might try and save me, "Raegan admitted, and she smiled a little to herself. "That little doofus." She glanced back up at the two riders, "Wouldn't want him to reveal himself to some other people on the chance that they tried to sell him or something."

Something  _worse_.

"Does his - - really have healing abilities?" Hiccup asked excitedly.

Saliva.

Raegan tried to think of how to explain it.

"Sort of," She told them. "It can't actually heal you, I think. I think it might just give you some extra strength to fight off," What was the word for disease again? " _Sickness_  yourself."

Hiccup put his hand to his chin, "Fascinating."

Raegan eyed him up a little.

"We would never do anything that might hurt him, Raegan," Astrid suddenly spoke up, probably seeing the look. "We  _are_  friends of dragons."

Raegan just nodded her head, packing her pelts to Mowgli to ride back with them.

"I'll introduce you. . .  _later_ ," She told them slowly. "It would just have to be one at a time."

"We understand," Hiccup smiled at her. "We would do the same in your situation."

Raegan appreciated that he understood.

The next three days were spent putting together some extra pieces of the huts until they managed to stand by themselves without fear of a strong wind or storm pushing them over.

In that time, Fishlegs was unspeakably excited by the prospect of meeting a new dragon, especially one on the island and so close; but Hiccup convinced him that it was fine to wait a while more, while everyone got more used to each other (and Raegan was extra, super,  _incredibly_  sure that she could trust them).

Three days after this, Hiccup and Astrid invited her to come back home with them.

They were flying back to Berk tomorrow to resupply and check in. To tell their people that they found a good base. Now they were wondering if she would like to join them.

The question filled her with a certain. . . _excitement_ before she had even come to a decision.


	33. Sky trip

Mowgli was excited at the idea of leaving the island again. He loved it on (Hiccup recently proposed the name for the island and Raegan accepted it just fine) Dragon's Edge, but there's nothing like flying for hours on end over an open ocean to fill you with wonder. The two would make similar journeys to the markets, but not with a pack and never to a village like this: where, supposedly, the entire tribe were friends to dragons.

The Woolly Howl purred and burbled as he flew circles around some of the other riders. It was a little embarrassing. Raegan's face went a little red as he barked at the Deadly Nadder flying to the left side of the group. Raegan was suddenly reminded again that she was a few years younger than everyone else. A kid compared to them.

"He seems really happy to get out for a long flight," Astrid commented, smiling at the playful creature asking for attention.

"I usually don't like going out too far," Raegan admitted to her. "It's a little dangerous when you're on your own."

"Well, you're going to love Berk," Fishleg's pulled up on Raegan's other side, his Gronckle's buzzing wing-flaps emphasizing his voice. "We have feeding troughs, we build saddles, and Gobber even fixes dragon teeth!"

A dentist? Raegan couldn't help but be amused by the thought, "Wow, that sounds. . .  _amazing_."

She glanced down at her dragon partner. The thought of a saddle had crossed her mind before, but she wasn't good enough with her hands and tools that she could make one for herself. Maybe she could talk to the craftsman and ask them to build one for her? Raegan glanced back over her shoulder at the island she called home. It was already out of sight and it would be too late to go back and gather some supplies she could offer as a trade.

The idea of a saddle was  _really_  cool, but she survived long enough without one. Did she  _really_  need it?

"You can leave any time you want," Astrid told her, mistaking the look. "If anything ever becomes too much for you, you can leave."

Raegan nodded at the woman, a smile on her face saying she had no intentions of falling back now.

Most of the flight was extremely boring. An entire day's journey, all through the night and then into the early parts of the morning. Raegan's legs were sore by the end of it, so much so that she would probably feel funny walking for a while after it.

She did her best to shift around on Mowgli's back. She pulled her legs up to sit cross legged; and she laid down on her back with her body straightened out, looking up at the starry night sky. Mowgli slowly became less hyper as time went on, but there was never a question of whether or not he would make it.

The tough scales under her just got decidedly harder and more uncomfortable after an entire day of sitting on them.

In this time, Raegan got some more interesting experiences from flying in a group. At one point she pulled in beside the twins and had a. . . thought-provoking conversation with them. She and Fishlegs had pulled together to talk about some of the sea-dragons they could see just under the surface of the water. Raegan and Hiccup talked about another island he'd visited years ago, where the dragons left to lay their eggs in the winter.

This lined up with some observations Raegan made about many of the dragons flying south; but she always assumed it was for the cold weather, like birds did. Her theory had explained why Mowgli never tried to follow them. He thrived in the snow and ice of the colder months, but now she thought it might be because he was not fully mature enough to look for a mate and have babies.

Hiccup's explanation made her giddy at the mere idea of an island full of baby dragons.

How adorable would that be?

"That was the strangest - - ever," Astrid piped it determinedly to the conversation, shaking her head at the memory of it.

Raegan tilted her head at the unfamiliar word and tried her hand at repeating it.

"Yeah," Fishlegs confirmed her pronunciation. "Snoggletog. When Odin rides down and leaves gifts in the helmets of all the good little viking children."

"Don't tell me you still believe that, Fish-Face," Snotlout scoffed, pulling in to address it.

Fishlegs turned a little red, "Of course not! I was just explaining to Raegan."

"You don't have Snoggletog?" Tuffnut asked Raegan in a mad gasp.

"No?" Raegan asked, "But, that sounds a little like Christmas."

"What's a Krisstsass?" Snotlout asked, not looking at all curious about the actual answer.

" _Christmas_ ," Raegan corrected. "Like this," Did vikings have a word for holiday? " _Special day_  where people give out gifts to their friends and family."

Explaining Santa would be really weird.

Explaining the celebratory birth of Jesus Christ would be  _really_  weird.

And Raegan hadn't really thought long and hard about the existence of Santa Clause since she was away from her family for the last six years. She never got any presents, so the thought had really left her mind.

She also didn't have a calendar, and she never put out any cookies so maybe that's why she never got any gifts.

She never sent Santa a letter telling him what she wanted either.

Huh.

Maybe he just didn't exist; who knows?

Either way, talks of their favorite holidays made everyone come a little closer. Even Snotlout, who was still cold and bitter, calmed down and had a. . . civil conversation with her.

Eventually, as the sun set on their flight, Raegan rolled over onto her back to take a nap. The furs of the wolves and things she wore were soft enough that she was semi-comfortable dozing off on the back of her dragon. And Mowgli would be able to stay in line with the rest of the riders just fine.

They arrived at Berk the next morning.

Everyone groaned with relief and their dragons each gave extra bursts of speed at the sight of the island in front of them.

It was a tall island with decorated statues set out in the water around them, each housing fires. Maybe the Berkians' version of lighthouses. There were many buildings and houses scattered about in the village and Raegan could spot some features etched into the stone side of the mountain.

There was a large door, way too large than was actually needed, embedded, along with hundred foot tall statues of animated vikings. All around the island she could see dragons of all shapes and sizes. Nadders were perched on the rooftops, eating from bowls of fish planted there. There were Gronckles playing tag with children down in the roads. There was even a Zippleback or two napping in the allies between homes.

Raegan gaped at it all.

It seemed like people knew they were coming, or at least saw them before they landed.

Several children came running towards the cliff-side overlooking the docks to greet them. She heard calls of kids, probably each under ten, shouting, "Toothless!" In their excitement.

Raegan followed the other riders' leads as they flew down to land on the outskirts of the village. She vaguely remembered Snotlout mockingly mentioning that Hiccup was the son of the chief of their tribe, so it was a little understandable to watch as all the younger children came running to pet at and greet his mighty Night Fury.

The black dragon looked almost deflated by all the attention and Hiccup awkwardly addressed the excited kids and managed to head them off somewhere else. The other riders slowly dispersed a bit, greeting some arriving people here and there; but Raegan was more amazed by the sights up close and personal.

There were special perches on the roofs of all the buildings, with calling Nadders and creatures roaring in happiness. There were large stone bowls carved out and held over in the same places filled to the brim with fish. Raegan spotted a happy few children climbing up the sleeping body of a Gronckle down the street. Some vikings were out on a stroll into the village center with their dragon companions at their sides.

It was such a natural sight that it made Raegan feel a glow of. . positivity swell up inside.

The resident vikings here saw the arrival on dragonback so normal that they barely gave her a second thought.

Until someone did.


	34. Tour

It started out with a child.

He was small, blond hair. His helmet was a little big for him and rocked as he moved around.

"Whoa!" His blue eyes were wide as he marched over to Raegan and her partner. "I've never seen a fuzzy dragon before!"

Mowgli watched the child a little hesitantly. He had never seen one before, other than Raegan herself, but that was many years ago and this young boy was younger than she'd been. Raegan was standing by her partner's head and patted him in comfort, "It's okay, pal."

Then she turned to the kid, a little nervous about interaction.

"He's not actually furry," She explained as clearly as she could, suddenly self-conscious about her accent. "See?" She gave Mowgli's neck a good rub and the little boy's eyes widened even more.

In the blink of an eye he was moving forward, his arms outstretched and giving Mowgli some much needed attention. The adolescent dragon's discomfort vanished almost as soon as the small hand began scratching around his neck and chin.

He let out a little purr sound and the little boy giggled.

The innocent interaction was a breath of fresh air for the distant pair, and they quickly began to relax.

But Raegan couldn't help but raise her tense shoulders a little bit when Hiccup called her attention.

"I have someone I want to introduce you to."

Beside him was an enormous man. An older gentleman, taller than Hiccup, with a bright red and slightly menacing beard that covered his entire chest as it spread out every which way in many decorated braids and ties. His helmet reminded her of a bulls, the horns stuck out long over both his shoulders and weren't very tall themselves.

"Dad, this is Raegan, the rider we met out on the Edge," Hiccup told the man, before turning to her and explaining. "Raegan, this is my father, Stoick the Vast."

The chief.

Oh.

Meeting someone so important made her turn a little red. Her mind went blank for a second as all the worst possibilities came to mind. How much exactly had Hiccup told his father? That she attacked them? She was still trying to live that down.

With the conflict in her head, she almost stuck out her hand to shake his before she remembered that the vikings don't do that to greet people.

 _Cultural differences_.

She'd only ever seen people shake hands in deals and agreements. . .

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Raegan," The chief's booming voice welcomed her. "You certainly are young to have trained a dragon on your own aren't you?"

Raegan glanced back to her partner just behind her where he was being cuddled to death by a new hoard of children. It made her smile, "I don't think age had anything to do with it, sir. It was just the right. . ." She thought thought hard for the right word, "Circumstances."

"Well, he certainly is friendly enough," The chief said, grinning at the sight over her head.

Mowgli was now walking in a confused circle as two children climbed on his back. Another was hanging with his arms and legs wrapped around the Howl's chin and neck. At some point the dragon was poked right on his nose, which caused his eyes to cross strangely for a second before he sneezed out a flutter of frost and mist, coating the kids directly in front of him.

The hit children squeaked at first before falling in a bit of laughter together.

Raegan had one hand over her mouth as she beamed.

One of the kids on Mowgli's back poked her head up into sight and asked, "Why doesn't he have a saddle?"

"Umm," Raegan thought for a second as she tried to come up with an answer. "I don't- -"

"Doesn't have a saddle?!" A new voice shouted out from a few yards away. " _Who_  doesn't have a saddle?"

The culprit was a beefy blond man with a long mustache, tall horns on his helmet, and a hook for a hand. As he limped over, Raegan's eyes were drawn to the wooden peg he used to replace his right leg.

"Gobber," Hiccup greeted him as soon as the man joined their little circle. "This is Raegan, we met her and her dragon on one of the islands we visited."

"Another dragon rider?" Gobber asked, a little surprised as he eyed up the teenager. "Well, how come you flew all the way back here without a saddle?"

Raegan leaned back slightly at the sudden question directed at her. She glanced over at Hiccup for a moment, "I never got one?"

" _No saddle_ ," He scoffed, turning to look at the Woolly Howl in front of him. "I don't know how you flew all the way back here without one. Your tush must be aching something fierce."

Raegan blinked. Then her eyebrows nit together at the language.

"I can't let that go in good conscious," He went on, hand waving. "Bring him by the forge later and I'll get one ready for you."

Raegan felt excited by the idea, but she couldn't help but bring up, "I don't have anything to trade for it."

"The first is on the house," He answered like it was common knowledge. "But I'll need to take some measurements. Haven't seen a tame Woolly Howl before."

She managed to thank him before they were interrupted once again. Fishlegs waddled over with his grinning Gronckle by his side, another dragon that seemed to be subject to some climbing by the local youth.

"Oooh, Gobber," The young man brought up. "While we're on the topic, Meatlug and I are in need of a new one too."

Gobber rolled his eyes as he gave the pain a once over, "The saddle's fine, Fishlegs. You don't need a new one every six months."

Fishlegs waved it off, answering with something along the lines of, "Only the best for my Meatlug."

* * *

Astrid eventually took pity on her and shooed away the children from her dragon.

Raegan wasn't too sure where most of the other riders went: Hiccup was called away by his father to talk to him about something and Fishlegs went off to the forge to get a new saddle.

The twins were nowhere to be seen, and Snotlout wasn't high on Raegan's priority list.

This left Astrid to give Mowgli and her the tour of the island.

The Nadder and rider showed off the Grand Hall, which was a grand hall carved into the tall mountainside. It was used for meetings and holidays and special occasions and the like. The center had the biggest fireplace she had ever seen indoors, and all the walls were coated with tapestries of dragons and things.

Astrid also showed her the docks and paths leading to the Dragon Academy: an enclosed, stone, circular area that used to be a fighting arena before the Berkians made peace with the dragons.

"You and Mowgli can stay in here until we build you a place to stay."

Raegan wasn't expecting that.

"You don't have to build me a home," She replied quickly as Stormfly and Mowgli began to play fight and chase each other around the arena.

"Well, we can't just let you sleep outside every time you come to visit," Astrid told her as though it made the most sense in the world. "It would take no time at all to build you a small place to sleep."

So that was going to happen.


	35. Saddles and things

Fishlegs was already gone by the time Raegan and Mowgli made their way to the forge to talk to Gobber.

Gobber was eyeballing her dragon with interest. His hooked hand was scratching his chin while he looked over the Howl's torso and neck.

"Looks a bit like an overgrown Night Fury, don' he?" He asked while Raegan made her way around the stall.

She hummed to agree with him as she eyeballed the metal baskets hanging from the ceiling. They were a little over her head, but grabbing a hold of the pole a little to the side of it, she was able to climb up and see inside.

At first she was confused, but it looked like to her that there was a pile of metal teeth on the inside, all shapes and sizes to fit the various dragons that lived on the island. Was Gobber also the dentist she heard about on the fly over? A jack of all trades kind of guy.

Raegan sat by the stall the entire time.

It turns out building a saddle was a long and drawn out process.

Not so long that it took a few days, but several hours were spent sitting around the forge and watching a Gobber worked. Raegan considered going for another flight while she was out, but she couldn't help but be super excited by the new equipment.

Gobber didn't seem to mind her watching him work. Occasionally, he would sing to himself. . .

". . . my axe, and I've got my mace, and I. . . I'm a viking through and through!"

It took her a while to actually decipher the words from the low tone he used and the rhythm she wasn't used to, but she was sure she would have the song stuck in her head a lot.

But sometimes they would talk.

"Where are you from, Raegan?" He eventually asked her.

Her name sounded funny coming from him, and it made her smile a bit.

She decided to humor him, "Macon, Georgia."

He paused his work, eyebrows ruffling, before he sent her a glance.

"Never heard of it? Is that outside the archipelago?"

Raegan's smile slipped a bit, "I'm not sure. I was pretty young when I got separated from. . . But I haven't seen anything that looks remotely similar since then."

"I'm sorry to hear that, lass," He sounded like he meant it. "Can I ask how you were separated?"

"I'm not too sure what happened, actually," She answered him honestly. "I remember walking home with my brother, I was right beside him. But then I was in a forest I didn't recognize. I was too little to actually find my way back to my home on my own."

That experience was not as traumatizing considering everything else she had gone through since then.

"How did you survive?"

This time it wasn't Gobber who asked. Both Hiccup and his father had walking in from the door behind her, listening to her story.

It was Hiccup who asked.

Raegan grinned a little as she answered him, "A dragon found me."

At the tilt of his head, she went on.

"She was old, her eyes were failing. She must have heard me crying. Scared me to death when she took me back to her cave with her, but she kept me from freezing to death. . . You know, I had never seen a dragon before that."

"Really?" Hiccup asked, shocked. Invested in the story.

"Yeah, they aren't around where I'm from. People told me they weren't real."

"Your village never had raids? Dragon attacks?" Stoick asked her, a little disbelieving.

She shook her head.

"What kind of dragon was it?" Hiccup asked her curiously.

Raegan's eyebrows nit together, "I'm not sure, actually. I haven't seen one since."

If anything, this made Hiccup look even more excited.

"She looked a bit like a Gonckle, but  _bigger_ ," Raegan thought for a moment. "And lazier. A Boulder Class for sure."

"Really? Could you draw her?"

"I think I actually have before," She answered him. "I might have the drawing back in my cave on the Edge."

"I'd love to look through those again when we get back," Hiccup told her, asking permission.

"Well, just make sure you finish that errand for me first, son," Stoick reminded him with a pat on his shoulder.

"Right," Hiccup looked back at her after answering his father. "Raegan, do you think you and Mowgli would be up for a little catch and release later, once your saddle is finished?"

Catch and release?

Mowgli rumbled somewhere behind them, and Raegan tilted her head at the question, "What do you need help with?"

"There's this Scaudron that's been causing our fishermen some toruble," Hiccup explained to her. "We just need to relocate it farther out to sea."

Raegan didn't see why not.

"I don't see why not."

* * *

Hiccup was still at the forge by the time Gobber finished up Mowgli's saddle.

She watched as Gobber slipped the thing over Mowgli's shoulders and hooked around his front legs. The Woolly Howl wiggled a bit as the unfamiliar restrictions tightened around his belly and neck. He didn't seem uncomfortable, it was just  _new_.

Raegan paid close attention to the way Gobber attached the saddle until it was finally finished, just to make sure she could get it on and off without someone's help.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Gobber waved his flesh hand at his masterpiece as the large Strike Class turned his head this way and that to examine and sniff the new equipment over his shoulders and flattening the mane of scales he occasionally spiked up to intimidate threats. "Why don't you give it a shot?"

She didn't need to be told twice. Raegan materialized beside her partner and gave him a comforting pat on the side of his head to direct his attention back to her, then lifted one leg to propel herself up from the stirrup and swing herself into the seat.

It was an entirely new experience.

The seat was much softer and smoother and didn't have the uneven scales she was so used to from riding bareback. Instead of latching her fingers around the larger scales poking up from the back of Mowgli's head, she now had new handles just at the front of her that were made for human hands to grip. Much sturdier and so comfortable, she almost felt like it was going to fall off.

Could flying really be this. . . easy?

There was already less strain on her thighs and fingers just from sitting on the new leather. Not to mention the new foot rest she had that flowed a few inches in any direction as she moved them.

It was remarkably similar to Hiccup's saddle, actually. Only hers was slightly larger (since Mow was bigger than the Night Fury) and less complicated since she didn't need to control the tailfin to fly with her companion.

She could not thank Gobber enough for it.

Luckily, it seemed he was not one for exaggerated thanks and just waved his hand at her with a smile.

"What do you say you take it for a test flight?" Hiccup asked, watching her experimentally wiggle in her seat and flatten her belly to the seat to for greatest speed.

Mowgli barked at the invitation and blinked back at her with his tongue flopping out like a labrador retriever.

"I guess, that's a yes," She answered him with a wide grin, feeling her partner wiggle his rear for a second as he stretched his wings and got ready to take off.

Hiccup and Toothless were a sight to behold. They seemed to share a mind when they flew together, which honestly made Raegan both jealous and amazed.

Their mostly wordless flight together quickly turned into a bit of a race, which, as much as they had going against them, Raegan and Mowgli held up surprisingly well. Hiccup and Toothless had knowledge of the island and greater speed, but Mowgli's powerful wings made them a worthy adversary.

Despite Raegan's original feeling, the saddle was sturdy and held up perfectly during their twists and turns and dives and climbs. It never shifted or put them off balance, and didn't interfere with Mowgli's flying even as he did barrel rolls or took sharp angles.

Mowgli let out happy barks, and his tongue slipped out like he was a dog sticking his head out the window of a speeding car. Raegan felt the same.

This feeling really was the best she had felt in a long time.


	36. Bonecrushing

"All right, gang, we'll buzz past the Scauldron and draw its attention so Astrid, Ruff, and Tuff can net it from behind and drag it out to sea. Got it?"

"I  _still_  think we should blast it."

Raegan had some experience with Scauldrons in the past. Anyone who lived in the archipelago would find one eventually, and in her experience they usually liked to be left alone. They seemed a bit like Changewings in that aspect, so the only time she ever interacted with them was to give them a wider berth while she was flying over them or send a fish or two their way if she had some to spare.

She hoped that Tuffnut was joking about the attacking part, but really he could be going either way.

Astrid set him straight anyway, "Stoick  _just_  wants us to move the Scauldron out of Berk's fishing lanes, so don't get any crazy ideas."

"Uhh,  _sorry_ ," Ruffnut's rough voice called back to the pretty blonde over the wind. "Crazy's what we do, Astrid.  _Duh_!" As if to prove her point, she twisted herself in her saddle around the neck of the green Zippleback they rode so she was flying upside down and hanging towards the salty ocean under them.

Mowgli tilted his head at the sight and batted his wings again, before glancing up at his rider. Raegan thought it was a little funny as she shared the look with her dragon.

Fishlegs did not think it was funny. His nervous voice entered her left ear as the bee-like wings of his Gronckle sped past her to fly near the front of their flock. "You guys  _do realize_  that a Scauldron's hot water blast can rip the scales right off of a Screaming Death?" He turned around to inform them of this, Meatlug flying backwards with as much skill that she could do flying forwards. A trait Raegan admired in the Boulder Class dragons.

But this was her first little mission with the other riders and was perfectly content with staying relatively quiet through it all.

_What's a Screaming Death?_

The name was awfully similar to a Whispering Death, and she loved spending time with those dragons whenever she spotted them. They used to give her quite a frighten before she learned of their love of music and turned into little puppy dogs whenever she sang or hummed to them.

Before she could lean over to ask Astrid for an explanation (because she wasn't too keen on striking up an entirely new conversation with everyone when she could just get a quick answer off to the side), a shrieking call interrupted their leisurely flight.

It looked like the directions they were given by the eccentric fishermen were correct. Just below them, poking his head through the surface like the Loch Ness Monster, was the very Scauldron they were looking for. A deep blue-green color and much larger than any of the dragons the riders had on their side.

"There it is!" Hiccup called over his shoulder at them, quietly enough not to draw the sea-dragon's attention. "Let's focus, guys!"

Raegan pulled back and flew to the other side of the Zippleback so she could soar beside the Monstrous Nightmare and Gronckle. She had been avoiding it to begin with because Snotlout was a little bitter any time she was a wing's length from him, but considering she now had to work beside him there wasn't much she could do about it.

In the corner of her eye, she could see Astrid throw one end of the rope net she had to Ruffnut and the two dragons swooped down closer to the ocean's surface to get in position.

On her other side, Snotlout had given her a disgusted look and pulled away from her ever so slightly. Hookfang glanced back at her, looking remarkably friendlier before turning back to face forward.

All that was left was to listen for Hiccup's mark.

Everyone was in position.

Hiccup started counting.

"One. . ."

". . . two. . ."

". . .  _three_!"

Mowgli's wings bunched up, ready to give an extra burst of speed and get ready to fly down and around the sea-dragon's face, but right before he could, they were thrown off by one of the loudest noises Raegan had ever heard.

Or maybe it was just regular-loud at a  _really_  inopportune time.

"Ach- _choo_!"

Behind them, Fishlegs sneezed loud enough to wake an entire flock of sleeping Night Terrors. When Raegan glanced back to look, she could see that even Meatlug's normally steady flying was blown off course by the action. A second later, she was spinning out of control, heading directly for Snotlout knocking him clean from his saddle. His arms flailed and he screamed as he plummeted toward the open water, only narrowly catching himself on the net they were going to use for the wild seadragon.

The wild seadragon that had now noticed them and was looking extremely bitter about being snuck up on.

Raegan leaned back in her saddle, causing Mowgli to hover where he was and looked back and forth between the other riders.

Apparently she had the right idea, because Hiccup immediately called out to the, "Abort, abort!" before he himself was bumped into by an out of control Gronckle.

The thing about flying, though, is that it's hard to stop all the momentum keeping you going in a split second, especially when it's two different dragons (three of you count heads) being directed by their riders in a sort of compromising relationship. So Astrid and the twins couldn't immediately stop where they were flying after the call for retreat. This put Snotlout directly in the line of fire of an increasingly agitated Scauldron.

The large, plump beast snarled at the human dangling in a net in front of him. Looking murderous while Snotlout screamed in fear. Acting immediately, Raegan leaned forward to direct Mowgli down and into the face of the Tidal Class. Mowgli spit out a few small balls of hail, knocking into the side of the drooping face and the Scauldron turn his attention away to snarl at the new attacker, completely forgetting about his next meal.

It seemed Hiccup had the same idea, because he and Toothless swept around the dragon's head to confuse it for a second before shooting a small plasma blast at his face to scare him away.

"Oh,  _I_  see how it is," Tuffnut droned from a little ways above them. "Hiccup and  _his new favorite_  are allowed to blast it."

 _Oh_ , right.

They weren't supposed to blast it were they?

Raegan completely forgot about that in the confusion and had acted on instinct.

But then, she wouldn't really call shooting a few small chunks of hail (barely the size of baseballs, really) to distract the dragon ' _blasting_.'

Oh, man, she really hoped she didn't get in trouble for that. Anxiety and something like regret began to eat at her stomach in her self-consciousness.

Luckily it looked like Hiccup wasn't too mad at her. He wasn't even looking her way at all: he was eyeing the water under them where the Scauldron quickly disappeared from sight.

"Let's head back," He didn't bother addressing Tuffnut's complaint. "It doesn't look like he'll be back anytime soon."

Mowgli turned away from the water and looked back up at the rest of the flock to follow them. Hookfang looked to be following them just fine on his own and decided to fly down by the net hanging from the Nadder and Zippleback. His pupils were large and looked amused at the sight, huffing out a Nightmare's equivalent of a laugh.

"Oh, shut up," Snotlout snapped back at him. "This is all Fishface's fault."

"What?" Fishlegs had stabled out slightly now and was rubbing his nose a little. Raegan flew up beside the confused-looking Gronckle to eye up the rider. His nose was dripping a little as he sniffed loudly. His eyes were a watery-red color. Was he sick? "How is this  _my_  fault?"

"Oh, I don't know," Snotlout feigned, rubbing his chin in thought for a second before shouting angrily. "Maybe you missed the part where your sniveling gave us away and almost got me blasted by ' _scalding hot water_ '?!"

Fishlegs looked honestly confused at it all, fidgeting a bit as he rubbed his nose again and began scratching all over himself.

Was he allergic to something?

It did not take long at all for them to land down in one of the open spaces on Berk.

Snotlout was not taking this lightly at all. Not one to 'forgive and forget.' He was dropped heavily onto the rocky ground under him with an 'oof,' and spent the next ten seconds angrily fighting the net that entangled him until he was finally out of it. Then his foot caught in one of the holes and he tripped right on his face.

Raegan probably would have laughed a bit if he wasn't so angry and intimidating at the moment.

"You know, you and your snot rockets almost got me killed!"

"Calm down, Snotlout," Astrid seemed just as amused by the sight and not concerned in the least. "You lived.  _Yay_  us."

Snotlout turned his glare to her, and waved his hands over to the large bookworm. "No thanks to Itch-Legs over here."

True to his word, Fishlegs was earnestly scratching over the front of his pants and around his butt. "It's so weird," He commented, lifting one hand up to cover his nose again as he sniffed. "I mean, I never. . . ahh. . . never. . .  _ah_ -choo!"

This interrupting sneeze was not as catastrophic this time, but it still caused Ragean to wrinkle her nose at. He had sneezed directly into the face of his poor dragon. The poor girl looked as lost as ever, caught somewhere between bothered and baffled by the sounds her rider was making.

Raegan slipped off of her saddle, resting one hand on the back of Mowgli's head as she watched the interaction. Best to stay out of it.

". . . get sick!" He finished proudly, holding his hands out to show off his superior genes.

He started scratching again.

" _Everyone_  gets sick," Raegan pipped up, a little annoyed at his attitude towards it.

"Not Ingermans," Fishlegs said proudly. A little counterproductive considering he then began to scratch even harder around his thighs and calves at a new bought. "I've  _never_  been sick before.  _Ever_."

The rest of the riders balked at the sight he was bestowing, except the twins. Ruffnut didn't seem to care, and Tuffnut looked amazed.

"Dig deeper, see if you can draw blood."

"Well," Hiccup seemed a little more human and cared about his friend's reactions. "Something's clearly not right with you."

Fishlegs stopped, his hands dropping a bit and he turned to look back at his friends, "I don't see what the big deal is, okay? Everybody sneezes and scratches  _sometimes_."

"Not like a honey-covered yak on an anthill!"

The simile was so far out there, it took Raegan a few seconds to translate, which probably made her face pretty amusing to look at when she turned to stare at the twin that said it.

Apparently she wasn't the only one because he backtracked to explain, "What? You've  _never_  seen a honey covered yak on an anthill?" At the blank faces he revieved, he shook his head at the memory, the gleeful smile dropping from his face as though he remembered something tragic, "Well, those things scratch. It's terrifying." He put a hand on his chest and looked back up at the sky as though he was an actor on stage, "The horrors haunt my dreams."

"I really don't feel sick, okay? I promise, I'm fine." Fishlegs went on, before a sudden stress came over his reassuring face and he began rubbing himself on the side of his dragon. The rough Gronckle skin must normally do a good job, but for now Meatlug just looked confused and Fishlegs was suffering.

Raegan knew he was only denying it because of his proud Ingerman heritage, or something, but it crossed her mind to just ask,  _how would you know if you're sick if you've never been sick before?_

Hiccup looked away from the sight like it was too disgusting to watch (it sure came close to Raegan, that's for sure), "Well, maybe you're just - - to something?"

Allergic?

Fishlegs stopped itching to give Hiccup what would normally be a pitying and amused look but lost its touch from his apparent anguish, "Uh, that's impossible. Allergies don't run in the Ingerman family."

"It could come from  _either_  side of your family," Raegan was a little annoyed at his persistence.

"No one in my family is allergic to anything," Fishlegs insisted. "Ingermans don't get sick!"

Raegan smiled at his frustrations, "Well, it sounds to me like you think you're better than people who get sick." She shook her head as though she were ashamed of him, but her face gave away the joke.

"Well, I don't want to brag- -"  _Yes he does_. "Ingermans don't get sick. We are clean, serene- -"

"And an itchin' machine," Ruffnut interrupted with a wide smile.

"Might I interject?" Tuffnut asked, holding up a finger like a civilized individual. A true man of culture. "We at the Thorston house have a very simple allergen detection system." His hands rested on his hips proudly, "It has never failed."

Ruffnut poked her head around him, eyebrow raised, "That's a system?"

Tuffnut didn't move as he answered her out the corner of his mouth, "It is now." Then his hand shot back up, a finger pointing to the sky to draw attention, "If you will sir, please follow me to the Allergen Detection Arena while my partner gathers together all our needed samples."

_Guess we're doing this now?_

It was later revealed to her that this "Allergen Detection Arena" was really Berk's Dragon Academy and the twins were just using it. The academy itself was remarkable. She'd seen it on her tour of Berk, but hadn't had the time to really admire it yet (after all she was going to be sleeping here for the time being). The arena part was cut into the stone making a bowl shape. Above them was some strange contraption that seemed to raise and lower a chain fence that Raegan assumed was meant to keep the dragons from flying away once inside.

The skeptic in the back of her mind was hesitant about the whole place, but she pushed it down.

The outlaying part of the arena held a raised wooden platform where Hookfang, Stormfly, and Barf and Belch perched to watch the events unfold. Meatlug, Toothless, and Mowgli settled for staying by their riders' sides at the bottom.

Along the far side of the arena were several large doors resembling unused cages. As the riders stepped inside the front entrance, Fishlegs explained some of the Dragon Academy's history, starting with when it was built and by whom and what caused which scorch-marks on the stones below them.

The twins nipped this at the bud, "Bah, bah, bah, bah, bah. Enough with your  _learning_!"

"We're here for your allergies," Tuffnut concluded, grabbing a foul smelling yellowing circle and stuffing it into the larger young man's face. "Behold, a thousand-year-old-egg."

Fishlegs blinked, mouth gaping at the sight. "Uhh."

"Slam this down your gullet."

It suddenly became very clear to Raegan why the twins had offered to help.

Fishleg's hands did not shake when he grabbed the egg from the blond. "Hmm," He eyed it curiously before shrugging and taking a crunchy bite from the side.

Raegan gagged. Beside her Hiccup made a disgusted face and Astrid shook her head and put it in her hands.

Fishlegs made an approving sound, "Could use a little sea-salt."

Tuffnut's happy face fell in his disappointment; but was quickly shoved aside by his sister, brandishing a black mass of hair she wasted no time in hitting the patient with, "What about  _this_?"

Fishlegs screamed.

"Yak hair!" She grinned, "Takes itchy to a whole new level."

By the time she stepped away, after rubbing it all over his face, he was covered in spare clumps: over his cheeks, up his nose, hanging from his hair. "Not really. Kinda feels like my old Aunt Gerta." He raised a hand to rub his face, "You know she used to- -"

"No!" Hiccup interrupted, raising his own hands high to stop the mental image. "I'd like to be able to sleep tonight."

Raegan only looked back and forth between them in confusion as the next sample was brought forward to test.

"Spoiled, - - goat milk with just a pinch of hoof jam." Tuffnut offered, "I find it changes the whole experience." He handed off a mug full of some other foul smelling liquid.

Liquid isn't the right word, but Raegan's Norse was failing her at the moment.

Fishlegs eyeballed it, swishing it around a moment before turning the mug a full 180 degrees and drinking- - slurping(?) the entirety down in one enormous gulp. He made a sharp face at the sudden taste, taking several tries before it stayed down properly before giving his review, "Oh, that is. . . cheesy and delicious."

Raegan gagged again, this time accompanied by all three other witnesses.

Fishlegs smiled smugly at the dumbfounded looks on the Thorstons' faces, strolling over to grab a soccer-ball sized rock to feed to his happy little Gronckle. "I'm telling you, I've never been allergic to anything," Halfway through his sentence, his voice became nasally and only a second after it ended did he sneeze all of its contents into Meatlug's startled face.

So, Raegan was beginning to develop an idea of what was wrong with him.

"Fishlegs?" Hiccup rubbed his chin, "I think you might be allergic to  _Meatlug_."

Raegan felt her stomach sink in her body, suddenly become colder, and couldn't help but glance up at her own dragon where he was lounging in the shade up above the ring, blowing mist into the face of the light blue Nadder beside him. The idea of being allergic to her dragon was heart-wrenching.

Not even Snotlout seemed to find this very funny.

"Why, all of the sudden, would he be allergic to Meatlug?" Astrid asked.

"Perhaps it's just a simple case of adult-onset allergies," Tuffnut offered up happily.

"Ahh," Ruff grinned as she rubbed her hands together in thought. "I - - with your - -, Dr. Nut."

"I concur with your concur-ation."

At the blank response they received, the woman decided to explain, "Adult-onset allergies develop in your elder years when your - - mistakenly identifies a dangerous - -."

Raegan was learning all kinds of words today.

Or rather, was only grasping about half of everything they were trying to explain.

They didn't get much of a reaction.

Fishlegs' nose clogged up again as he hugged and scratched his dragon on her side, "Don't be silly. There's no way I'm. ." He snorted, ". . . allergic to Meat. . ." He cut off as he clawed viciously at his face. Is mouth opened wide and his head threw back like he was about to- -

Ruffnut quickly grabbed the back of his head and forced his face against Meatlug's side.

Fishlegs sneezed several times in quick succession.

"Oh, yeah," Ruffnut looked over her shoulder gleefully. "Diagnosis confirmed."

Hiccup's hand dropped from his chin and his prosthetic foot clanked against the ground as he approached the suffering bookworm. "Fishlegs, there's only one person that might actually be able to help."

" _Gothi_?" Snotlout snorted. "Your going to ask that crazy old bat for help?"

"Who's Gothi?" Raegan asked.

Astrid's arms crossed over her chest, "Berk's Elder. I've seen her do incredible things before; she might actually be able to cure your allergies."

"Oh yeah?" Snotlout goaded on, "What about that time I was vomiting up green slime? She couldn't do anything to help then!"

"Wasn't that the week after you crashed into her hut and destroyed her supplies and spent the rest of the afternoon following you around and beating you with her staff?" Fishlegs asked him with a raised eyebrow.

Snotlout didn't move, his arms crossed over his chest as his eyes focused on a point far over their heads as he thought back. He didn't say anything for a second, and then, with the upmost confidence, "No."

Hiccup shook his head at them and then turned to Fishlegs again, "Don't worry. I'm sure she can fix this."

"Oh, I've gotta see this," Snotlout rolled his eyes, turning to follow the other two as they left the ring.

* * *

Raegan felt strange just going off on her own just yet. She felt like an outsider still. Berk was a relatively large island but still small enough that everyone knew everyone else. Following Astrid around all day seemed like a good of option as any.

It might have been annoying if it were anyone else, but Raegan didn't talk much or follow too closely or interfere with anything the older woman was doing. Astrid couldn't help but be a little relived that the young girl hadn't chosen to follow in the twins' footsteps and cause mayhem.

Astrid settled for flying the younger girl through many drills, seeing exactly how she and Mowgli could fly together. The blonde was not disappointed. She could fly circles around Snotlout, Fishlegs, and the twins. Mowgli was very quiet for his overwhelming size and just as fast. However, the woman was still able to pass on a few tips here and there that Raegan was grateful for.

They had only been flying around together for a little over an hour before they had to cut it short.

The Nadder's rider was leading the girl over the center of the village when she caught sight of a very distressed Hiccup. Banking back to take another closer look at him, the older girl let out an agitated sigh, "Ugh,  _what now_?"

Raegan followed her line of sight and the two landed to confront him.

The taller man's face was scrunched up like he was uncomfortable and his hands were once again rubbing on his face as he followed Fishlegs and Snotlout around. The former was strutting and smirking confidently, which automatically sent some red flags off in Raegan's head; the ladder was dancing after him, grinning and giggling and swooning.

"What happened?" Astrid asked, padding up to Hiccup's right side. "What's wrong with Fishlegs?"

"Well, Gothi cured his allergies," Hiccup answered, staring off with the good news. "But somehow Snotlout hypnotized him into thinking he's this tough, fearless viking warrior. He doesn't even seem to care about Meatlug anymore."

Raegan watched as Fishlegs winked at some viking ladies as he passed by, confusing them enough that they stopped what they were doing to stare.

"And Gothi can't just turn him back?"

"Not without her staff, which  _Thor Bonecrusher_  crushed and threw off the cliff," Hiccup explained deadpan, already totally done with the problem when it was barely midday.

Raegan winced at it, already uncomfortable with just witnessing Fishleg's new personality.

"Why don't we just go find it?" Raegan asked him.

Hiccup glanced back like he hadn't thought of that idea, "He broke it in two. Even if we did find both pieces, I'm not sure if we could fix it."

Raegan really didn't want to watch any more of 'Thor' so she only waited a few more seconds before asking, "Where did he throw it away?"

* * *

Mowgli purred as they flew away from the village. Raegan had not realized how much she was not used to being around people until she was finally alone again, in the sky. She was excited to be around so many friendly faces again, but it became exhausting after only a short time. Her stomach began to feel sick and her shoulders shook like some unknown creepy crawly was digging its way under her skin.

She became anxious and tired extraordinarily quickly and she didn't like it, no matter how refreshing it was to be around friendly people.

Searching the cliff-side for the broken staff was relaxing in comparison. It had been probably only a little under an hour since it had been thrown away, so the odds of her finding it were fairly slim to begin with.

Either way, it made her feel useful and gave her something to do; and if she was successful, she might win some points with the tribe.

The staff was probably made of wood, she'd decided early on, so odds were it was going to be floating around somewhere. The waves were likely to keep pushing it against the cliff-side, so all she had to do was scan up and down until she spotted something.

The saddle under her was like a dream. Normally the three hours she spent looking would have been uncomfortable and hard on her butt, but with the saddle it was like flying on a cloud.

She really had to thank Gobber again when she saw him.

Raegan wasn't able to find both pieces. The first one she found after an hour of looking. It seemed like a staff anyway. The top part with intricately carved symbols and beads decorating it.

She didn't really know who this Gothi was, and wouldn't want to just show up to give it back to her, so after she gave up she went looking for Hiccup and Astrid.

Outright refusing to ask for directions made it take even longer than you would think, but sooner or later she found a familiar bright red beard and landed down beside him.

"Excuse me, uhh, Chief Stoick?" She felt nervous interrupting him, the look on his face was harsh and tough but it was hard to tell if that was just the way he looked or if he was actually upset.

"Ahh, Raegan," His deep voice greeted, any sign of aggression gone.

Not angry then.

"How's the saddle working out for you?" He asked, turning completely to face her, as though he were actually interested in her answer.

"It's  _amazing_ ," She answered without thinking, then, with a wide grin. "I love it. I really need to thank Gobber again when I see him."

Stoick's laugh was thundering, startling her a little and shaking the ground under her feet, "I'm sure he knows. You haven't seen my son, have you? I need to speak with him."

"I was actually going to ask if you knew where he was," Raegan answered, holding up the broken staff. "I found this and wanted to return it."

At his confused face, she explained to the best of her abilities why she had Gothi's staff and that she was going to ask Hiccup about giving it back to her and fixing the mess with Fishlegs. They were both looking for him, they might as well walk together. The chief had been standing on the thousand stone steps on his way to the Great Hall.

Raegan joined him on the walk, admiring the architecture as she went.

She was beginning to relax beside him, walking along the steps as a few people here and there said a good morning to the chief and nodded to her respectfully. It was nice.

The doors to the Great Hall were slightly ajar, making her think about how difficult it must be to open and close them. She felt incredibly tiny next to the enormous viking chief, so maybe it was just her. The doors were very beautiful, amazing carvings and had an incredible height; but she didn't think she would be able to open the door just by herself.

Stoick had only just pushed on the doors, opening them up farther so he could march on in (because the man couldn't very well walk anywhere, he _marched_ ), before he caught sight of something that made his knuckles turn white and his shoulders widen enough to increase his size.

Whatever it was he saw inside infuriated him.

Raegan only had the chance to peer around his bulking form for a second before his bellowing voice began.

"Fishlegs!" His words made the entire hall fall silent, all eyes of the crowd inside turned to look at him. "Is that my axe?"

People began whispering to each other, low enough and far enough away it was impossible for Raegan to translate; however, Stoick paid this no mind. His eyes were trained on a lone figure standing in the center as confident and smug as can be.

Fishlegs was holding a beautifully decorated axe. The thin handle was wrapped in quality leather Raegan couldn't help but admire from where she was standing and the sharped points on the end looked almost like they were dyed red. Not with blood, really. The colors just faded in and out like a changing leaves in the different seasons.

Fishlegs did not reply as all of his audience began to flee to the far corners of the room away from him.

Hiccup, the great compromiser, rushed forwards with his hands up, either to show he meant no harm or to prepare to hold his father back in case he decided to attack.

"Uhh, dad, that's not  _Fishlegs_  Fishlegs," He explained awkwardly, only just barely getting his father's attention.

Stoick looked down at his son's face, before moving his gaze back over his head at the blockhead gloating over his victory behind him. "Don't be daft. I'm looking right at him," He waved one tree-sized arm at the young man, still ready for a fight. "Holding _my axe_ , by the way."

Raegan's eyes flickered between them, cuddling the staff close to her chest as she did so.

"Ahh," Bonecrusher spoke up, as though the entire ordeal was barely worth his time. "You must be Stoick the Vast- -" He suddenly grinned and held the axe closer to his body, "- - _ly overrated_."

Raegan took several steps back.

No, thank you.

The great chief push forward one hand, firmly moving his smaller son out of the way so that nothing stood between him and the thief. He did not shout the next words, " _What_  did you call me?" He jerked his head down slightly, beard swaying at the sudden movement to look at his son and exclaimed, "What did he call me!"

"That's what I'm trying to tell you," Hiccup's eyes wandered as he thought of how to explain it clearly. "He's not himself."

Stoick didn't care, "Give me back my axe!"

"Don't you mean  _my_  axe?" Bonecrusher sneered.

This was not the correct thing to say.

"Uhh, he was just polishing it for you, Chief!" Gobber hobbled out from one of the corners, working his one good hand at calming his lifelong friend down.

"Let me handle this," Hiccup mediated. "I will get your axe back to you,  _I promise_."

Stoick let his breath out through his nose, "Fine, but make it quick, or I'll take it from him myself."

Gobber placed his human hand on his shield-brother's shoulder, directing him around completely and steering him towards the door.

A silent Raegan quickly skipped back out of their way as they turned to leave, listening to the blond man's voice as they left, "Chief, let's get out of here. How about a nice piece of mutton?"

As soon as they crossed the threshold of the door-frame, Raegan glanced back at a stressed Hiccup. She shifted the broken staff in her hand, running the long beads through her fingers as she did so.

Hiccup's own fingers were running along his face as he stood back watching Bonecrusher from a distance. Snotlout's loud voice echoed around the Great Hall as he cheered over the great warrior's defeat of Stoick.

"I found one of the pieces," Raegan drew the young leader's attention back to her, holding it sidelong for his approval.

"You  _found_  it?"

The inexperienced teenager inside couldn't help but think,  _uhh, yeah,_ _that's what I just said_ , but on the outside she just stayed silent and turned a little pink as he took the staff from her hands and looked it over.

"I'm not sure if Gothi can fix it with just one piece, but it'd be worth a shot," He sent the younger brunette a crooked smile, and Raegan enjoyed watching his uneven teeth at work. He looked a little goofy, she noticed.

They both turned to look back at Snotlout and the freak creature inhabiting Fishlegs' body, only to notice that the two had vanished from sight and had fled through the front doors. It only took a couple jogging steps to run after them, but it seemed like the two just disappeared into thin air.

Even from the high point at the top of the steps overlooking the entire village, neither could spot the problem of the day.


	37. No more bonecrushing

It did not take the two very long to grab a hold of the heavy blond again. Bonecrusher and Snotlout made lots of noise everywhere they went. The former was beginning to gain a reputation after the hours he spent marching around, and Snotlout was making it very clear he was rolling out the red carpet for him. Many younger children fled at the sight of them while the older, more viking like, adults cheered and follow like they were celebrities.

Astrid put a stop to it for them.

She clearly had enough after one too many snide comments by the hypnotized rider. Raegan didn't grasp exactly what he said; but the girl wrinkled her nose at the later comments, the kind she remembered from her time at ports full of lonely men seeing land (and women) for the first time in weeks.

Astrid grabbed the taller man's hand and wrenched it being his back, kicking the back of his knee and forcing him to the ground. The condescending way he laughed only farther infuriated the great warrior, and she quickly latched onto his ear to drag him behind her.

"Astrid," Hiccup called out to her once they were within earshot. "We managed to get one of the pieces back," He showed off the staff in his hands. "Let's get Bonecrusher back to Gothi so she can fix him."

" _That_  old sack of skin?" Bonecrusher laughed at it, " _Bonecrushers_  don't get sick."

"I've heard that before," Raegan wasn't amused. Eyes narrowed as the two older riders lead the third back towards the cliff she had spent so much time searching around.

Raegan didn't care much to listen to his pompous words agreeing, mostly content with tuning it out as they finally made their way towards the cliff she had spent so much time searching around.

Gothi's Hut, apparently, was located high in the sky. Built on a man made tower with a thousand steps spiraling around. Raegan got a little out of breath climbing them all, feeling the fresh air bursting around as they traveled a hundred feet in the air was exhilarating. The walk was made in relative silence, their dragons had been left back in the village.

It seemed very inconvenient for a medicine woman, since it is most likely that sick or injured would need to make the walk, but Raegan shook the thought away.

Raegan was at first worried about Mowgli, how he would react with so many vikings around while she wasn't there, but Stormfly seemed to keep him busy. The two could be seen playing a game that might resemble tag, calling out playful roars and barks to each other as their riders continued the climb alone.

The hut at the top was small and didn't even include a real front door. It was easy for Raegan to peer inside the three-walled structure, filled floor to ceiling with shelves and things holding all kinds of plants and jars and things.

"Gothi!" Hiccup called out when they'd reached the top, "Raegan found part of your staff. Do you think you could be able to change him back?"

Raegan watched as an elderly woman crept her way out of the dark hut and into the sun. Her hair had long since lost any color to it, looking a lot like snow. It was tied over her shoulder in a thick braid. She was short, even shorter than Raegan and hunched over slightly. Her face was stern, impatient. Her demeanor made Raegan a little nervous, avoiding eye contact and shifting slightly on her toes as she gripped the staff tightly in her hands.

Gothi stepped forward, not even waiting before she took the staff from Raegan's outstretched hands. Then she busied herself around the medicine hut, grabbing a few things here and there and making a rough mixture of green slime in a small wooden bowl.

She used no measuring cup, just pilled pinches of something here and there. She was very experienced and merely had to eyeball the things she threw in the mix.

Bonecrusher had no patients for this, snapping out, "I hope this won't take long, sorceress. I like to nap after a feast of wild boar and mead."

"Thanks for the help, Gothi," Hiccup eased over the words. "We really need Fishlegs back."

Gothi stopped her mixing, smiling at the product, and used the end of her broken staff to grab a hold of Fishlegs' lips and pull him down to her level. He was too surprised to stop her, and she poured the strange green mixture into his mouth.

Immediately he winced and coughed at the taste and a few seconds later he had rushed over to a nearby barrel to vomit.

Raegan gagged.

"Ugh," Astrid turned back to Gothi. "What was in that potion?"

Gothi looked away from Bonecrusher's heaving form, and, using a thin stick, began to squiggle little drawings into the sandy floor of her hut. Raegan stepped closer to watch her work, but the little signs meant nothing to her. They didn't even look like the alphabet the vikings usually used.

Not that Raegan could read that either.

"'It wasn't a potion'," Gobber leaned down to read. "'Just spiced yak bladder.' She says,  _that'll teach him_  to break her staff."

Gothi didn't look up until she finished. Gobber continued on reading.

"She thanks you for finding it for her," The beefy blond continued, looking back at Raegan.

And when Raegan did look back at her, the elderly woman was smiling a gummy smile.

Raegan returned the gesture, a little nervous at the recognition. "You're welcome, Gothi."

Bonecrusher's head shot up from the barrel he was using, breathing heavily as though he had been holding it under water. "Not the most delicate delicacy."

"What about getting Fishlegs back?" Astrid asked, one hand on her hip.

Gothi didn't spare her a glance, staring down at her broken staff and twirling it slightly in her hand. Then she turned back to the hypnotized impostor, giving him no time to react as she twirled the staff in front of him a few times.

In the blink of an eye, Bonecrusher was flat on his face.

Gothi seemed to find it amusing, and once again began writing in the sand.

"'Don't mess it up this time.'" Gobber read outloud for them. "You two should hurry it up, don't know how long Snotlout can stay away from his beloved  _Bonecrusher_."

His voice lacked any real amusement.

It was now or never. The rest of them turned to Hiccup and he stepped forward again, talking in a strange voice Raegan had trouble translating.

"Uhh, here it goes," He started, clearing his throat and leaning down to speak clearly to Fishleg's unconscious form. "Fishlegs, you are not Thor Bonecrusher. You are Fishlegs Ingerman: nerdy, Gronckle-loving, Fishlegs Ingerman. And you are  _not_   _allergic_  to Meatlug."

Hiccup did not look especially confident at his abilities to hypnotize Fishlegs, but he looked up at Gothi when he was finished anyway.

"So, uhh, what happens next?" He only barely had time to get it out before Gothi approached skeptically. She eyed up the chubby young man lying before her and then simply snapped her fingers.

Blue eyes snapped open immediately.

"Uhh, hello?"

And just like that, Fishlegs was back.


	38. School memories

Raegan was reminded of the school cafeteria. The loud sounds of children talking and eating for the entire period. It was one of her favorite parts of school, spending time with her friends right before heading out for recess where she could run and play.

Now she could hardly remember their faces.

The Great Hall was a stark contrast to those feelings. Even surrounded by the rowdy and happy vikings, drinking their cares away for a special meal celebrating the Scauldron being scared off, (a very unusual scenario which also lead the rider's to learn that Fishleg's had never been allergic to Meatlug in the first place and was instead allergic to the wax Gobber used on his saddles) Raegan still felt isolated.

The noise made it hard to concentrate on any one person's voice, which made translating very frustrating to her (wasn't it always?).

Instead she settled for admiring the artwork hanging on the walls, portraits of different men and their sons painted on the backs of shields. There was even one of a younger Hiccup and his father.

Raegan had long abandoned her meal, settling for moving the meat around on her plate indifferently as her eyes drifted across the enormous meeting hall.

She knew she should be glad and happy, being surrounded by other people.

But she still felt alone.

Just as her mind began to wander again, focusing intently on the portrait just across from her that featured a short blond boy puffing out his chest, she felt a light  _tap tap_  on her shoulder.

She turned at once and was very surprised to see the old wrinkly face of Berk's elder, Gothi. The old face made her nervous. Something about the old woman's eyes, the fact that she had seen far more than Raegan ever believed she would.

It's not like she could even talk to Gothi, the old woman's voice didn't seem to work and wrote in strange squiggles that even the rest of the village had trouble deciphering.

She stuttered for a moment, barely managing to get out her greeting, "Yes?"

Gothi simply tilted her head back, pointing her staff to the far end of the hall where the massive doors stood, and then began to walk.

Raegan shifted uncomfortably, lifting one leg over so she was straddling the bench she sat on, but still not sure whether to follow the old woman or not.

Gothi made it nearly halfway before glancing back with a look that all but pushed Raegan from her seat, nearly running after her.

In the back of her mind, Raegen considered the fact that she was just leaving her plate, all of her food out. All of the ingrained manners in her, long dormant from her time running wild and feral, told her it was rude. But there wasn't really anything else she could do.

With the rowdy way the vikings acted during the feast, she was sure someone would take care of it and eat all of her leftovers.

Raegan slipped through the doors with the old woman, holding them open for her as the ancient healer passed through. The blast of chill air felt nice on her skin, a stark contrast from the warmth she felt in the Hall.

Still, she stayed quiet, following the elder down the stairs until the reached the bottom, where Gothi stopped.

Raegan stopped too.

The older woman turned to look at her, eyes nearly squinting, creating even more wrinkles than she had to begin with. Raegan felt a sort of deer in the headlights look wash over her, maintaining eye contact as the elder looked her over. Thin and bony hands on her chin, head tilted just so.

It had been a very long time since Raegan had met someone as old as Gothi. This did not bring her any comfort, Raegan very seriously doubted a weak woman would be able to make it to Gothi's age.

After what seemed like an eternity, Gothi's face softened, something like a cool acceptance washing over as she gave Raegan another one of her gummy smiles.

They continued on their walk.

* * *

Raegan did not say anything. She did not feel there was much of a point, given that Gothi couldn't communicate back.

The young woman followed her elder through the village until they came to the bottom stairs leading to her isolated hut. Raegan absently wondered where her companion had wandered, watching as a few Gronckles passed her heading the opposite way. The sudden itch to fly, reached her as she followed the old woman up the thousand wooden steps to her nest.

Raegan could feel the butterflies in her stomach flutter around in a whirlwind.

What did Gothi want? What did she need?

Was Raegan in trouble?

Still she followed obediently, eyes drifting to the sun out in the distance over the sea as it sank deeper into the depths.

It was a beautiful sight.

As they neared the top, Raegan began to hear noises. Sounds of scuffling and shifting. Only a few seconds later, she made it to the top to see a flustered looking Fishlegs completely surrounded by all kinds of different plants and flowers and things.

"Fishlegs?" Raegan's eye furrowed, taking in the absolute mess of a hut. "What are you doing?"

"Raegan!" His eyes snapped up to meet hers, "Oh, uh, just helping Gothi take stock of her herbs."

Raegan could understand why, he had caused quite a mess after being hypnotized. It would not surprise her to learn that Gothi was making him help her in return for the problems he caused.

"What are  _you_  doing here?" Fishlegs asked, resting one hand on a thick book in front of him before turning to put away a few stems of dark green leaves.

Raegan just shrugged helplessly, eyes now shifting to the elderly woman who'd passed the Ingerman by to search through one of her other chests. It didn't take long for her to find what she was looking for and rise again. Her limbs shook ever so slightly from her age, holding out an old piece of fabric to the younger woman.

Raegan's hazel eyes flickered between the strip of fabric and the elder's faintly smiling face, before gently taking it in her hands.

It was brown, very faded, and  _very_  old. Unfolding it slightly to examine it, Raegan examined the insignia embedded into it. Slightly raised up, circular in shape, with a few lightly curved lines passing over it.

It appeared to be a sleeveless coat, something to wear over her clothes.

Raegan's eyes glanced back up to the elder,  _why was she giving her this_?

Just to the side, Fishlegs let out a gasp, not at all helping Raegan's confusion.

"That's an - - !" He exclaimed.

"A what?" Raegan's head spun as she tried to place the word.

"A - - !" He repeated, "It's when someone offers to teach you their trade."

Raegan's eyes widened, and she looked back to the fabric in her hand. Suddenly it felt like it was worth a lot more, like she shouldn't be holding it.

"I don't . . ." Raegan fumbled a bit as she shifted the coat in her hands, "I don't understand."

"It's an honor!" Fishlegs answered, "I've never heard of Gothi offering to train someone before! She must really see something in you! You get to learn all kinds of herbs and healing tricks!"

Raegan glanced over again at the piles of plants collected all around the hut.

 _She would get to learn about them_  all?

That. . sounded very interesting, actually.

Raegan had never had much luck with plants in the past. She never had anyone offer to teach her like that.

Memories of her time at school came flooding back to her. The teachers there never offered to teach her because they 'saw something in her.' It was just their job. If she didn't go to school, her mother would go to jail.

Raegan didn't know how to explain that she was honored by the offer, the best that came out of her mouth was, "I- thank you, Gothi!"

The old woman's expression didn't change much. She only gestured with her hands quickly for Raegan to put the coat on, an order the young one hastily followed.

It was thick, the inside lined with warm and soft fur keeping out a chill that Raegan hadn't even noticed she had. It could easily replace her other coat, which was beginning to wear down, mostly being worn out of a habit if nothing else. Raegan examined the sleeves, just a little bit too long. Built for someone a little larger than her, but not so off that it would hinder her movement. Raegan just marveled at it; the quality was extraordinary.

Once Gothi seemed satisfied with her attire, she strolled over to the far end of the hut, where she kept a thin layer of dirt or sand. Then, using her newly fixed staff, began to write a scribbled message.

Fishlegs stood quickly, and together the two young ones peered over her shoulders.

It just seemed nonsense to Raegan. Some sort of cross between a drawing of a picture and different words mixed in. It was hard to tell what it meant.

Luckily, Fishlegs could translate.

"She says,  _I expect you to be here at dawn each morning, bring your dragon. . . you start tomorrow._ "


	39. How to train your Raegan

Raegan woke what felt like every half hour that night. Fishlegs had flown with her to the Dragon Academy, blabbering one long stream of consciousness that Raegan could only really understand half of. It took him a few minutes before he left for home and Raegan could finally choose one of the nests to sleep in and call it a night.

She did not have a very restful sleep, choosing instead to turn over every possible snibbit of knowledge she had about Gothi and what she would be training Raegan to do.

From what she could gather, Gothi was the tribe's healer and the eldest elder. Based on everything Fishlegs had told her, she was here long before anyone else was born and would probably be here long after they were gone.

He made it sound like she was Berk's age.

Every time Raegan woke she would sit up straight and stare out from the small bundle of furs she had made for her bed and look out into the sky. Every time it was pitch black, and she would roll over and try to sleep again.

This happened, it felt, a hundred times.

Until finally, she woke to the sounds of Terrible Terrors singing into the palest of blue skies, and she hopped up, any and all signs of sleep gone, and straightened the new coat farther around her body. Her tongue swiped over the front of her teeth, and she briefly considered what she could do about her breath, before shaking it off by getting ready to leave.

She woke Mowgli by putting his saddle on over his back and beginning to tighten the straps. He let out a large yawn, revealing every single one of his teeth in his large purple mouth. Shiny white pearls reminding Raegan of a certain blue alien from her childhood. When it closed, he left several of his teeth poking up from his lips and his eyes were lazily clinging to his dream. He watched her without amusement.

He was not in the same hurried excitement that she was.

In fact he didn't seem like he cared much at all.

Not that it mattered. Her first day of 'work' wasn't exactly what she was expecting.

She arrived on time, just as the sun peeked its way over the horizon and the sky turned its pale egg shade. The entire village had a blue twinge to it, and Raegan could spot a few vikings beginning their morning routines as she flew overhead.

Gothi was already awake, seeming content with just sitting on her large porch overlooking the sea. She was hunched over, hands wrapped around her old staff and her eyes shut. Mowgli's large wings left a wind that pushed her hair back fiercely before he landed with a large creak. Raegan slipped from his saddle, one hand lingering on his head as he gave the old woman a curious snort.

The elder's eyes opened, and Raegan's shoulders stiffened. Her heart was heavy in her stomach, and she quickly stepped forward.

She arrived on time, right? Was she supposed to bring something? Maybe Fishlegs told her and she forgot. What was she missing?

Raegan's hazel eyes watched silently as the elder stood from her place of relaxation, shuffling over to the small shack on the other side of the landing and quickly returning with a small bundle and some parchment.

Turning the objects over in her hand, Raegan let her eyebrows furrow in her confusion. Was she supposed to make something? Now would probably be a terrible time to inform Gothi that she didn't know how to read.

But looking closer at the paper, there weren't any of the uniform, mysterious runes she knew the vikings to use. There were more simple drawings, a sort of map. Or at least it  _could_  be.

Surprisingly, recognizing what it was did not make following it any easier.

In her other hand were a small assortment of plants. A few soft leaves with sharp jagged edges, a drooping bright yellow flower, and some thick dark green oval shaped leaves.

At the clear confusion plastered on the young girl's face, the elder woman wordlessly picked up her staff and pointed swiftly over the edge of the tower. Raegan followed the end of the staff to stare at the vast forest on the edge of the village.

 _Oh_.

* * *

Finding these plants proved to be about as difficult as you can imagine. She found the dark oval leaves just fine enough, with no help from the map. Pure dumb lick lead her to land in a sunny little plain of grass with a few pale white flowers scattered about.

It only took a moment of examining them for her to realize the leaves were the same, filling her with excitement and a sense of relief that maybe this task wouldn't be so difficult.

That was where the good feelings ended.

And her partner offered her little to no support on this.

Her Mowgli was not at all excited by the work she was doing, huffing and getting distracted and often flying off to wander for several minutes before returning. He would stumble (purposefully) though the undergrowth and make noise to try and distract her.

The sun had well traveled across the sky now, blasting more heat from above. Her back and underarms were beginning to feel sweaty from all the climbing and searching she was doing.

She'd never taken the time to really examine the plants she passed in the forest before. Some of the more brightly colored ones were recognizable, like the dark purple flowers that grew down by the stream.

But combing the forest had so far left her with nothing.

The map did little to help her. Full of unreadable squiggles and drawings. One of the few recognizable figures was a large mountain, but this didn't help her very much when she didn't know what the mountain was  _for_. Was it for the jagged leaves or the bright flowers? Were they found  _on_  the mountain or at the foot?  _East_  of the mountain or West?

Combing the woods was far slower, but more methodical and precise. She found many plants here and there with similar atributes, but none of them seemed exactly right.

Now it was past noon and Raegan's stomach was complaining for the lack of food in it.

A break would do her good.

So she made a note to where she was, so she wouldn't have to start all over, and climbed on Mowgli's back to fly back to the village.

Hopefully she could find something to eat.


End file.
